The winter 2019 issue of The North Carolina State Bar Journal featured an interview with Raleigh partner C. Colon Willoughby, who discussed his career, service to the bar and goals as the 2019-2020 North Carolina State Bar president. He was sworn in at the bar’s annual dinner on Oct. 24, 2019.
In the interview, Willoughby discussed his background growing up on a small farm in eastern North Carolina, his work as a mortgage banker and how it led him to go to law school, and his time on the State Bar Council. Willoughby joined McGuireWoods after serving as the elected district attorney in Wake County, North Carolina, for 27 years — making him one of the Tar Heel State’s longest-serving prosecutors.
As president of the North Carolina State Bar, he said he hopes to look “at the issue of whether some legal services can safely be offered to the public by alternative service providers and persons who are not lawyers,” as well as increase awareness of and protection from cyber threats and, more generally, how to improve the legal system.
Willoughby added: “We are in a dynamic time in our world today, and we must be responsive to the legal needs of our citizens. Access to high quality, affordable legal services presents challenges to all regulatory bars across the country.”