Rob Harrington Named President-Elect of NC Bar Association

Robinson Bradshaw litigator Robert E. Harrington has been elected to serve as president-elect of the North Carolina Bar Association. The election took place today during the organization’s annual meeting in Charlotte.

Harrington begins a yearlong term as president-elect of both the NCBA and the North Carolina Bar Foundation, and he will chair the Audit & Finance Committee of each organization. He will be installed in June 2025 as the 131st president of the NCBA.

“This is a big honor, and I know it will be a big responsibility,” Harrington said. “Being a part of the organized bar means a lot to me. We function best as lawyers when we acknowledge that all of us, collectively, are parts of a profession. I am really excited about the opportunity to serve in this capacity.”

Harrington has a long history of leadership within the legal industry. 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 presently chairs the NCBA’s Task Force on Integration, Equity and Equal Justice; sits on the Duke Law School board of visitors; and has spent the past 27 years on the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law board of directors.

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 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, and he is routinely recognized in publications like Chambers, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers and Business North Carolina, among numerous other honors. Harrington received both his law degree with high honors and his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Duke University.