James D. Blount, Jr., Smith Anderson Partner, Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

RALEIGH, N.C. – Mr. James D. Blount, Jr., partner at Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan law firm, will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. This honor reflects Mr. Blount’s contribution to the legal profession “not only by his superior trial skills and professional competence, but, even more importantly, through his integrity, charm, wit and courtesy.”

Mr. Blount graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has practiced law since 1952, including 38 years with Smith Anderson.

This honor recognizes milestones in Mr. Blount’s career such as serving as lead counsel in more than 300 civil jury trials in both state and federal courts; membership in the North Carolina Bar Association General Practice Hall of Fame; serving as Vice President of the North Carolina Bar Association, Chairman of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Bench-Bar Liaison Committee, Chair of the Centennial Endowment Committee for the North Carolina Bar Foundation, President of the North Carolina Supreme Court Historical Society, State Chairman of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Charter Member of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys.

A plaque commemorating this award will be presented to Mr. Blount at the annual luncheon of the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates with the Judges of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and North Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday, December 11, 2008.