On June 27, the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) honored Elon Law's F. Leary Davis with the Judge John J. Parker Award, the association's highest honor.
Bestowed in recognition of conspicuous service to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina, the Judge John J. Parker award is presented only as merited, with only 32 recipients honored since the award’s creation 50 years ago in 1959.
D. Clark Smith, Jr., Past-President of the NCBA, presented the award to Davis, saying, “Dean Davis is a true visionary who has made lasting contributions in the field of legal education, the administration of justice, and the cause of jurisprudence throughout North Carolina. As evident from his life’s work, he loves the legal profession, the practice of law, those who engage in it, and those who yearn to be trained as lawyers. He exemplifies the best of this profession, intellectual prowess, curiosity, a selfless commitment to those persons and those institutions that he represents, and the highest level of ethics and professionalism.”
Smith continued, “He is known across the state of North Carolina and, indeed, across the United States, for his conspicuous service in the cause of jurisprudence. He has devoted the better part of his adult life to the education of attorneys and to the betterment of the legal profession in North Carolina and beyond.”
Davis has been actively involved throughout his career in the American Bar Association, North Carolina Bar Association, and The North Carolina State Bar, in community and statewide civic projects, and in extensive research concerning the state of the legal profession. He was a member of the Governor’s Commission on the Future of North Carolina and a founding board member of BarCARES of North Carolina. He is currently a member of the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism and the American Judicature Society’s National Advisory Committee. Davis left law practice to help found the Campbell University School of Law in 1975 and served as dean there until 1986.
Davis was appointed Founding Dean of Elon University School of Law in March 2005.
Past recipients of the Parker award include former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justices James G. Exum, Jr. and Henry Frye, both of whom currently serve as members of the Elon University Law School Advisory Board, and civil rights pioneer Julius Chambers, who delivered Elon Law’s Diversity Day address in 2008.
The award was presented to Davis during the NCBA Annual Meeting held in Asheville, North Carolina. Click here for the NCBA announcement about Davis and the Judge John J. Parker Award.
