Richmond County native John Robbins Wester will take the post as the 115th president of the North Carolina Bar Association Saturday in a ceremony at the 111th Annual Meeting of the NCBA at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr. of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (retired) administered the oath of office.

“I am deeply honored that the members of the North Carolina Bar Association have entrusted me with this opportunity for leadership,” Wester said. “I will strive to uphold the great traditions of this association and the profession it serves in the days ahead.”

Wester grew up in Rockingham and graduated from UNC as a Morehead Scholar. He received his law degree with high honors from the Duke University School of Law, where he was an editor of the law review and inducted into the Order of the Coif.

Wester has since called Charlotte home, devoting his entire career to Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, where he concentrates in the trial and appeals of business disputes, securities regulation, corporate governance and employment cases. He has served the NCBA as a member of its Board of Governors and as chair of the Audit and Finance, Appellate Rules and Nominations committees.

Wester is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation.

Additionally, Wester noted, the NCBA will maintain its support of injustice initiatives and expanded funding for Legal Aid of North Carolina and other legal services providers.

Wester is married to the former Cam Lucas.  He has a son McNeill, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Law School, now an investment banker in Charlotte; a son Forest, a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Harvard Business School, now a private equity banker in Miami; a daughter Jane, a student at Charlotte Latin; and a stepson Lucas, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia.