Brooks Pierce partner Kearns Davis was named president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) on Saturday, June 20, at the Association’s annual meeting in Asheville. Davis will become the 122nd president of the NCBA in June 2016 and will serve a one-year term.
Davis will be the second Brooks Pierce attorney to serve as president of the NCBA. Aubrey Brooks, one of the firm’s founding partners, was the Association’s 20th president. His term began in 1916, 100 years before Davis will hold the role.
“Brooks Pierce was built on a foundation of service and leadership, both in our profession and in our communities. That began with Aubrey Brooks, and it has characterized Brooks Pierce for 118 years since our founding. Kearns is continuing a legacy that is very much alive and important in our firm,” said Ed Winslow, managing partner of Brooks Pierce. “Since joining Brooks Pierce in 1996, Kearns has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to his clients, exceptional integrity and mastery of a demanding practice. He is among the leading white-collar criminal defense attorneys in the Southeast. The North Carolina Bar Association could not have chosen a finer lawyer or leader to be its next president.”
“I’m deeply honored to be named president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association,” said Davis. “We are in a time of challenge and opportunity for our profession and our legal system. I look forward to meeting the challenges and seizing opportunities for the betterment of North Carolina lawyers, judges and citizens.”
Davis leads Brooks Pierce’s white-collar defense and investigations practice, and handles a wide range of federal and business litigation. He previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, where he was the United States’ lead prosecutor in felony trials for a broad spectrum of federal crimes, and as a law clerk to the late Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin, III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is a member of the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission, has held numerous other leadership roles with state and federal legal organizations, and has taught trial advocacy at the University of North Carolina School of Law since 2008.
