At a September 19 luncheon in Raleigh, North Carolina, hosted by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, law school dean George R. Johnson, Jr. presented Guilford County Public Defender Frederick G. Lind with Elon Law’s 2012 Leadership in the Law Award.
The Leadership in the Law Award recognizes lawyers who make outstanding contributions to the profession and to society.
Presenting the 2012 award to Lind, Johnson said, “It is really difficult for me to convey the full depth and range of positive influences Fred has had on the legal community and our law school. He is such an important member of our bar. Fred is the kind of lawyer who by dint of his personality and his unimpeachable integrity inspires public confidence in our legal system.
“For showing us what true dedication to building and sustaining a fair judicial system looks like, for showing so much care in mentoring emerging lawyers in our community, for exemplifying the determination, consistency and professionalism that defines great public defenders, and for modeling for us the life of a lawyer-leader, I am honored to present Frederick G. Lind with Elon University School of Law’s 2012 Leadership in the Law Award.”
Lind was sworn into office as the Guilford County Public Defender on April 1, 2011. He served in the Public Defender’s Office as Assistant Public Defender for 36 years prior to his appointment as Public Defender. He has tried more than 325 jury trials.
Lind is a former president of the North Carolina Association of Public Defenders, the Greensboro Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the Board of Directors for One Step Further, Inc., a nonprofit that offers mediation and sentencing alternatives programs. He is an emeritus member of the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism.
Licensed to practice in Florida and North Carolina, Lind is a member of the American Bar Association, Greensboro Bar Association, The Guilford American Inn of Court, and North Carolina Advocates for Justice. He has served on the board of directors of the Greensboro Bar Association and serves presently on the archives committee of the GBA, which tapes interviews with senior lawyers to preserve in archives.
Born in 1947 in Chicago, IL, Lind is a graduate of Duke University, where he was selected MVP of the men’s basketball team for the 1968-69 season. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Depaul University College of Law in 1974.
Lind is a past elder at First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro and an active member of the Greensboro Sports Council. His wife, Dr. Mary Louise Robinson Lind, is a professor in the School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University. They have two daughters: Mary Laura Lind, an Assistant Professor in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University, and Caroline Mundil Lind, a four time World Champion and a gold medalist at both the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics in women’s eight rowing.
This the second year that Elon Law has presented a Leadership in the Law Award. The 2011 recipients of the Leadership in the Law Award were Greensboro attorneys Mike Marshall and Karen McKeithen Schaede.