RALEIGH — A Pembroke attorney has been appointed to fill a vacant District Court seat in Robeson County, Gov. Pat McCrory announced on Friday.
Dale G. Deese, senior managing attorney of the Pembroke Office of Legal Aid of North Carolina, will fill the seat left vacant by Judge John Carter’s retirement.
Deese has served as senior managing attorney for more than 23 years. He taught business law and ethics as an adjunct professor at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and at Robeson Community College.
Deese was the second highest vote-getter when the Robeson County Bar Association late last year voted on a recommendation for Carter’s replacement. Jack Moody, an assistant public defender in Robeson County, received the most votes.
Deese received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina in 1983 and his law degree from the North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1989.
He is the 1994 recipient of the Julian Pierce Award for Public Interest Law from the North Carolina Central University School of Law. In 2012, he was named Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the North Carolina Bar Association.
Deese is co-founder of the Julian T. Pierce Memorial Scholarship Initiative, which has awarded more than $85,000 in scholarships since it was started in 2013. The initiative is named for Julian Pierce, the first director of Lumbee River Legal Services, now the Pembroke Legal Aid office. Pierce was killed in 1988 while running for a newly-created Robeson County Superior Court judgeship.
Deese, at a 2008 ceremony marking 20 years since Pierce’s death, credited Pierce with inspiring him to become a lawyer.
Deese also helped found the First Image Corporation, the North Carolina Indian Economic Development Initiative, and the Robeson County Community Development Corporation.
Deese joins Robeson County District Court judges J. Stanley Carmical, Herbert L. Richardson and Judith Milsap Daniels on the bench. Carter held a fourth District Court seat for 21 years before retiring in January.
