Kemp Receives State Bar’s McMillan Award

Robert “Bert” C. Kemp III has been honored with the North Carolina State Bar’s John B. McMillan Distinguished Service Award, presented by State Bar President Matthew W. Smith. 

Kemp earned his BA in economics from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1993 and his Juris Doctor from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1996. He began his career as an assistant district attorney in Pitt County before joining the Pitt County Public Defender’s Office in 2001 as an assistant public defender. In 2007, Bert was promoted to chief public defender for Pitt County, a role he has held for the past 16 years. Under his leadership, he has supervised and mentored an office of 13 attorneys, ensuring the indigent population of Pitt County receives competent and zealous representation in the criminal court system. 

Kemp is a past-president of both the Pitt County Bar Association and Judicial District 3 (formerly 3A) Bar. He has served as past section chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the North Carolina Bar Association and past-president of the North Carolina Public Defender Association. He is a North Carolina State Bar board certified specialist in state criminal law and served as chair of the Criminal Law Specialty Committee. 

Kemp has served as a member of the North Carolina Courts Commission, the Governor’s Crime Commission, the Chief Justice’s Equal Access to Justice Commission, and the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism and has been an adjunct professor of law at Campbell Law School. Kemp has been presented with the Wade M. Smith Award by the NCBA Criminal Justice Section and the Chief Justice’s Professionalism Award by Chief Justice Paul Newby in 2023. 

In addition to his civilian legal career, Kemp has had a distinguished military career as a member of the North Carolina National Guard. He holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He completed two tours of duty in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kemp graduated from the Army War College in 2020 with a master’s in strategic studies and is currently a certified state military judge. 

Kemp has been a member of NCAJ since 1996 and is a member of the Criminal Defense Section.