The Mecklenburg Bar Foundation’s Ayscue Professionalism Award is presented annually to honor a current or former member of the Mecklenburg Bar who exemplifies outstanding professionalism.

CHARLOTTE – John Wester is a litigator at Robinson Bradshaw, trying cases and arguing appeals in complex civil litigation cases and class actions in federal and state courts.

He has extensive experience in the North Carolina Business Court and has served as lead counsel in noteworthy cases reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outside his wheelhouse of business litigation, John has brought and defended cases advancing constitutional issues, including on behalf of multiple North Carolina governors. He has received the North Carolina Bar Association’s Advocate’s Award, the North Carolina State Bar’s John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award and the Duke Law Alumni Association’s Charles S. Rhyne Award for Professional Achievement.

John is a devoted advocate for an independent judiciary, including serving as the inaugural chair of the American College of Trial Lawyers’ General Committee for Judicial Independence.

His extensive community and board service includes Legal Aid of North Carolina, Higher Education Works, Duke Law’s Bolch Judicial Institute Leadership Council and the Lynnwood Foundation. John was president of the North Carolina Bar Association from 2009-10.

John attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar before earning his law degree with high honors from Duke University, where he was an editor of the Duke Law Journal.

It is for these reasons and many more that we are delighted to award John Wester the 2024-25 Ayscue Professionalism Award.

View the program from the Law & Society 2025 Gala to learn more about John.