Rob Harrington Installed as NC Bar Association President

Robinson Bradshaw litigator Robert E. Harrington was installed as the 131st president of the North Carolina Bar Association on Friday. He will also serve as president of the North Carolina Bar Foundation.

The swearing-in ceremony took place June 27 at the organization’s annual meeting in Asheville. Chief Justice Paul Newby administered the oath of office as Harrington’s wife, Sharon Harrington, held the Bible.

“Being asked to serve as president of the North Carolina Bar Association and Foundation is the biggest professional honor of my career,” Harrington said in his acceptance address.

Harrington co-chairs Robinson Bradshaw’s Litigation Department. Over his 30-year career, he has represented corporate clients and financial institutions in a broad range of complex business disputes, including contract, trade practice, consumer lending and other business matters. Harrington is a life member of the American Law Institute, a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a senior fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. He is routinely recognized in publications like Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers and Business North Carolina, among numerous other honors.

Harrington has a long history of leadership within the legal profession. Among many roles, he was a member of the NCBA board of governors and the NCBF board of directors from 2017-20; president of the Mecklenburg County Bar from 2012-13; a founding co-chair of the Meck Bar’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee in 2004; and a member of the North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice from 2015-16. Harrington sits on the Duke Law School board of visitors; has spent the past 28 years on the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law board of directors; and recently chaired the NCBA’s Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice.

In the broader community, Harrington has served as board chair for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Arts & Science Council and the Levine Museum of the New South. He is currently a member on several boards including the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, Opera Carolina and the Young Black Leadership Alliance.

Harrington received both his law degree with high honors and his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholar.