First Posted: 12/23/2011

Staff report

LUMBERTON — Vanessa Burton, of Lumberton, was recently sworn in as president of the Robeson County Bar.

Burton is a prosecuting attorney at the Robeson County District Attorney’s Office.

The changing of the gavel was held at Pinecrest County Club, during the Robeson County Bar Dinner. The annual event began in the 1930s and became known as the Buck Harris Dinner, in honor of Judge William Clinton Harris, who first held court in Robeson County in 1929.

This year’s dinner honored Maxton native and longtime Lumberton resident Henry A. McKinnon Jr., a former Superior Court judge who died earlier this year.

Guests in attendance included local and state officials, as well as Chief Supreme Court Justice Sarah Parker, and North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.

The previous president was Ron Sutton, an attorney from Pembroke. Sutton served in the North Carolina House of Representatives for 18 years.