Lind Receives GBA Distinguished Service Award

The Greensboro Bar Association established the Distinguished Service Award in 1993 to annually recognize a lawyer for exhibiting a deep devotion to the legal profession and an enduring contribution to the administration of justice and the public good through unselfish service.  This year’s recipient is our Chief Public Defender, Frederick G. Lind.

Fred is a native of Chicago, Illinois.  He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University where he was a standout varsity basketball player under Vic Bubas.  After getting his law degree from DePaul University, he headed south and accepted a job as Assistant Public Defender under the late Wally Harrelson. After 36 years in that position and nearly 350 jury trials, Fred was appointed Chief Public Defender in 2011.

Fred is a former president of the N.C. Association of Public Defenders, former President of the Greensboro Criminal

Defense Lawyers Association, former President of the Board of Directors of One Step Further Sentencing Alternatives Program, former Director of the Greensboro Bar Association and member of its History and Archives Committee, a master of the Guilford Inns of Court, member emeritus of the N.C. Chief Justice’s Committee on Professionalism, recipient of the 2012 Elon Law’s Leadership in the Law Award, the 2013 recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Wade Smith Award, a former Elder in Greensboro’s First Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Greensboro Sports Council.

For his deep commitment to indigent defense and our system of criminal justice, for his countless activities for the betterment of our profession and our community, for his faultless ethics and professionalism, and most of all for his kindness and goodness of heart, Fred richly deserves this recognition.

Co-workers from the Public Defender’s office celebrate with Fred Lind when he received the GBA Distinguished Service award.