Sam J. Ervin IV, of counsel at Brooks Pierce, will participate in the North Carolina Bar Association’s (NCBA) annual February Finale. Ervin will serve as a panelist for a session on Feb. 22, “The Duty of Lawyers to Support and Defend the Rule of Law Administered by a Fair and Impartial Judiciary.” The session is part of the five-day CLE event on Feb. 19-23 that offers attendees the flexibility to select from 10 unique programs.
The session enables the development of a more complete understanding of the terms "rule of law" and "judicial independence," both decisional and institutional, to provide attorneys with ethical ways and means for holding judges properly accountable, and to emphasize why this is so important to preserving our democracy. Panelists will discuss some of the threats to judicial independence and explore how lawyers have an ethical duty under the Rules of Professional Conduct to support, maintain, defend, promote and uphold fundamental principles.
Ervin brings his nearly 18 years in private practice and more than 23 years’ experience as a public servant to his work in assisting clients with a variety of regulatory and litigation-related matters. Before joining Brooks Pierce, he served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina for eight years, as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals for six years, and as a Commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission for nine and a half years. During his time as a Utilities Commissioner, he served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues and the Committee on Electricity of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and as a member of the board of the Organization of PJM States. During his time in private practice, Ervin handled a wide variety of civil, criminal, and administrative matters and participated in many civil and criminal jury trials and numerous civil and criminal appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court. He is a Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law from the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.
For more information about the February Finale, click here.