The Annual H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award

By Paul B. Taylor

Each year, beginning in January, the North Carolina Bar Association Professionalism Committee reviews nominations for the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award and recommends an awardee to the Board of Governors. The award is announced publicly and given to the awardee at the North Carolina Bar Association annual meeting in June.

The NCBA H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award was established by the North Carolina Bar Association in honor of United States District Court Judge for the Western District of North Carolina H. Brent McKnight’s contributions to professionalism and the practice of law in North Carolina, and in recognition of his enduring influence, high ideals, and example as a jurist whose life and career demonstrated the full, accomplished life of a “Renaissance Lawyer.” Judge McKnight was born in Mooresville, North Carolina, in 1952. He received a bachelor’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1974, a master’s degree from Magdalen College at Oxford University in 1976, where he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, and a law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1980.

After law school, Judge McKnight served as an Assistant District Attorney in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina from 1982 to 1988, and then as a District Judge in the 26th Judicial District Court of North Carolina from 1989 to 1993. Judge McKnight became a United States Magistrate Judge in the Western District of North Carolina in 1993. Ten years later, in 2003, upon nomination by President George W. Bush and confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Judge McKnight became a United States District Court Judge for the Western District of North Carolina. Tragically, Judge McKnight succumbed to cancer the following year.

I was one of the fortunate attorneys who knew Judge McKnight as a friend and colleague and appeared before him in court. By all accounts, Judge McKnight was not only a courteous and inquisitive judge, but he was also a critical thinker and challenged others to dig deeper and to engage in serious and substantial debates. I recall one oral argument I made before him in federal court. I had two federal court decisions that supported my argument. Not satisfied with just the case citations and holdings, Judge McKnight challenged me to explain the reasoning behind the decisions of two other federal judges, with an overtone that suggested that there was more to the issue than what other courts had decided and that he was considering deeper and more complex ramifications. We went back and forth in a rigorous, but always polite, discourse, with Judge McKnight repeatedly saying, “I hear your argument counselor, but what about this . . . ?” and throwing new fastballs for me to return.

Outside the courtroom, Judge McKnight loved to engage in discussions that allowed him to quote ancient philosophers, Irish poets, the Bible and Shakespeare to emphasis some modern-day point. As an English major myself at UNC-Chapel Hill, I recall a professor once describe a “Renaissance Man” as a “reader of books” — the point being that such a person had a broad knowledge of many topics acquired from years of study. That description fits Judge McKnight perfectly, hence the name of the award created by the North Carolina Bar Association in 2006 to honor his memory.

Since its creation, twenty North Carolina attorneys have been honored with the McKnight Award:

2025 | Kirk G. Warner, Raleigh

2024 | D.C. “Mike” McIntyre, Hillsborough

2023 | David Gantt, Asheville

2022 | Robert “Bob” Sink, Charlotte

2021  | LeAnn Nease Brown, Chapel Hill

2020 | The Hon. Linda Stephens, Raleigh

2019 | The Hon. Robert F. Orr, Raleigh

2018 | J. Rich Leonard, Raleigh

2017 | Martin Brinkley, Raleigh

2016 | Willis P. Whichard, Chapel Hill

2015 | Suzanne Reynolds, Winston-Salem

2014 | Harrison L. Marshall Jr., Charlotte

2013 | Jonathan R. Harkavy, Greensboro

2012 | Mark Merritt, Charlotte

2011 | Catharine Arrowood, Raleigh

2010 | Woody Connette, Charlotte

2009 | Mark Bernstein, Charlotte

2008 | Wade Smith, Raleigh

2007 | E. Osborne Ayscue Jr., Charlotte

2006 | Peter Gilchrist, Charlotte

The criteria for the award, as established by the North Carolina Bar Association, are comprehensive and reflective of Judge McKnight’s impact on the bar, the court system, the community, colleagues and friends. It is not just a lifetime achievement award, but rather, like Judge McKnight, something that reflects a deeper, broader, and more substantive set of qualities found in the few attorneys among us that can truly be called a “Renaissance Lawyer.” Those criteria are:

An attorney who through his/her accomplishments and multi-faceted life, serves as an example by inspiring others to renew their commitments to professionalism, integrity, intellectual achievement, civility, and service in the practice of law;

An attorney who possesses personal integrity;

An attorney who pursues excellence in legal work, and respects judicial officers, other lawyers, and members of the public;

An attorney who provides pro bono services to those in need of such services;

An attorney who provides service to the profession locally, in the state and/or nation, including but not limited to service through professional organizations such as local, state, and national bar associations;

An attorney who provides service to the community through civic, charitable, or religious organizations;

An attorney who is currently active in North Carolina, including lawyers in private practice, judges, corporate counsel and academicians; and

An attorney who is a member in good standing of the North Carolina State Bar and North Carolina Bar Association.

Now in my third year of serving on the committee that reviews and vets the nominations for this award, I am honored and humbled by the lengthy resumes, letters of support and demonstrated qualities of the nominees. Every year, it is a difficult decision for the Professionalism Committee to recommend an awardee among such distinguished attorneys, judges and academics who have served North Carolina so well. But more than just serving on this committee, it is an honor to be a part of continuing the memory and legacy of my friend and colleague, Brent McKnight, with whom I spent many hours in wonderful personal discussions, and a few intense but enjoyable oral arguments in his court. He left us too soon.

Paul B. Taylor is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association Professionalism Committee. Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in English and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978, and his law degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. in 1981. He served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Robert D. Potter and thereafter was in private practice in Charlotte handling mostly federal court litigation. In 1988 Taylor became a U.S. Magistrate Judge, serving until 1993, when he returned to private practice. In 2001 he became the Civil Chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. In 2016, Taylor accepted a position in the Office of Counsel for the Far East District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in South Korea. In 2020, he returned to Asheville, North Carolina, where he continues to work for the Corps handling contracts and litigation involving military construction contracts.