Congratulations to the NC Distinguished Lawyer Class of 2023
Charles Hardee, J. Anderson Little and Mike McIntyre are the 2023 recipients of the John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award.
The honorees, who were announced in December, were lauded for their years of outstanding contributions to their clients, the public and the profession. Below are biographies on the winners.
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2023 John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award Winners
The following is from the N.C. State Bar website:
Douglas Carmichael “Mike” McIntyre II. Mr. McIntyre graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and from the UNC School of Law in 1981. Throughout his career, Mr. McIntyre has been deeply committed to supporting and improving North Carolina’s education system. Upon graduation, he founded and chaired the Citizenship Education Committee of the Robeson County Bar. He served on the Executive Committee of the Citizenship Education Committee of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and chaired the North Carolina Bar Association’s Youth Education Committee.
He has volunteered in the classroom for over 35 years, chaired Robeson County’s Bicentennial of the Constitution celebration, served on the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division’s National Community Law Week Committee, and chaired the local Law Day Committee. He has also served on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Lawyers Advisory Committee for the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution and received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service for his work with students and educators.
Mr. McIntyre hosted the Youth Leadership Summit annually for all the schools in his congressional district, as well as taught his “Classroom from Congress on Citizenship” at schools across the region. He is co-founder of the McIntyre-Whichard Legal Fellows mentorship program at UNC Law. He is founder of the McIntyre Youth Leadership Challenge, which encourages students to embrace and practice the principles of good citizenship. The annual competition, held in conjunction with Law Day, was created in 2017 through the establishment of the Douglas Carmichael McIntyre II Justice Fund of the NCBF Endowment.
Mr. McIntyre served in the US House of Representatives for North Carolina’s 7th District from 1997 to 2015, and now serves as director of government relations for Poyner Spruill in Raleigh.
In 2018 he received the Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. Public Service Award, which is presented by the North Carolina Bar Association to “an outstanding lawyer in North Carolina who has performed exemplary public service.” Mr. McIntyre was chosen as Lawyer of the Year by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly in 2019. In 2020 he received the Liberty Bell Award from the Young Lawyers Division of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Charles R. Hardee. Mr. Hardee was born and raised in North Carolina. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1978 and his law degree from Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law in 1981. Since graduating from law school, Mr. Hardee has developed a personal injury practice in Greenville, NC. He partnered with his son-in-laws, attorneys Brack Massey and Kyle Blodgett, to form the law firm of Hardee, Massey & Blodgett, LLP.
Mr. Hardee is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and he holds licenses to practice law before all North Carolina state courts, the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Hardee has a reputation for navigating complex cases with skill, while maintaining an extraordinary level of collegiality and professionalism. He is known for treating everyone he encounters with respect, regardless of a person’s station in life, ethnicity, or religion.
Mr. Hardee has served in many leadership positions for the North Carolina State Bar. He served as a bar councilor for District 3A from 2011 to 2020. During that time, he served on the Grievance Committee, the Issues Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Distinguished Service Award Committee. He previously served as president of the Pitt County Bar Association and as president of the Eastern Carolina Inn of Court. He is a long-time member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and served two terms on its Board of Governors. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and previously served on its Litigation Council.
Mr. Hardee has the reputation of providing his clients with superior legal advice and service, regardless of their ability to pay for his services. In addition, he was quick to help lawyers who were struggling with problems that impact the lawyers’ health and ability to practice ethically. He provided help and resources, as well as a sympathetic ear for these peers.
J. Anderson Little. Over the span of many years, Mr. Little has committed his time and talent to the State of North Carolina and its court system. Perhaps most notably, Mr. Little was instrumental in the creation of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process that is now a common part of the practice of law in North Carolina. He chaired the NCBA committee that developed the pilot and statewide program of Mediated Settlement Conferences in superior court. He sought and obtained legislative and judicial enactment of authorizing statutes and rules to implement the program. Additionally, he was the first chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section, and he served on the NC Dispute Resolution Commission for many terms, twice as the commission’s chair by appointment of Chief Justices Lake and Parker. His leadership efforts led to the establishment of mandatory mediation and other settlement procedures in civil trial courts of North Carolina. Mr. Little was awarded the NCBA Dispute Resolution Section Peace Award in 2006.
Many lawyers know Mr. Little for two other reasons. For almost 30 years he has mediated cases—an estimated 6,000 of them. Mr. Little is also known for his mediation training programs for aspiring mediators. His guidance has provided large groups of professionals, attorneys, and nonattorneys, both in North Carolina and in other states, the skills necessary to help resolve disputes and improve outcomes in all types of disputes. Mr. Little has been influential nationally with his work with the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section. He has presented numerous CLEs and CMEs as well as published through the ABA a highly regarded book on mediation, Making Money Talk: How to Mediate Insured Claims and Other Monetary Disputes (ABA 2007). As part of his service to the ABA, Mr. Anderson served on the Dispute Resolution Section Publications Committee.
Mr. Little currently serves as president and lead trainer of Mediation, Inc., where he trains lawyers, judges, and nonlawyers about mediation.
Mr. Little’s work has been tremendously influential both for the art and practice of mediation and for the court system and its many varied ADR programs along with the thousands of participants. His contributions will continue to influence the ADR professionals, the participants, the general public, the courts, and the ADR programs for years to come.
Charles Hardee Receives Distinguished Service Award | North Carolina State Bar (ncbar.gov)
J. Anderson Little Receives Distinguished Service Award | North Carolina State Bar (ncbar.gov)
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