(Raleigh) — The Wake County Bar Association presented J. Allen Adams with the 2007 Chief Justice Joseph Branch Professionalism Award today during the group’s monthly meeting. The award recognizes the highest standards of professionalism among Wake County lawyers.
Selected by a committee of peers, the annual award is presented to a member of the Wake County Bar Association whose ethics, integrity and service to clients, the community and the Bar mirror the high standards set by the late Joseph Branch, former Chief Justice of the N.C. Supreme Court.
Adams currently serves as retired of counsel in the regulatory department of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP. He served five terms in the N.C. House of Representatives where he was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee (Base Budget) and was a member of the Governor's Advisory Budget Commission. After leaving the general assembly, Adams employed his understanding of state government to aid clients before the legislature and its study commissions including executive departments and administrative agencies. His years of lobbying have consistently earned him recognition as one of the most effective lobbyists before the general assembly as determined by a research poll conducted by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy.
He is admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States District Court for the Eastern and Middle District.
Adams has served the community through a wide variety of boards, including the Opera Company of North Carolina and the Wake Technical Community College Foundation, and served as chairman for the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission and the Wake County Public Library Board.
Adams served as an active duty officer in the United States Navy and later in the Naval Reserve, retiring with the rank of captain. He received his juris doctorate in 1954 and his bachelor’s degree in 1952 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been an advocate to his alma mater while in the general assembly, as a lobbyist, chairman of the university’s Board of Visitors and a member of the UNC General Alumni Association.
About Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP has approximately 230 lawyers in six offices across North and South Carolina. The firm represents privately held, public and international companies in litigation, alternative dispute, general corporate, transactional and regulatory matters, including employment, benefits, environmental and government affairs.