NCSB Journal Summer 2026

STATE BAR OUTLOOK

Checking Egos at the Door: What North Carolina’s JAG Corps Can Teach the Legal Profession B Y P E T E R G . B O L A C

On an early spring Saturday, I made my way into the Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh, where the hallways buzzed with the low hum of drill weekend. I had come to meet a group of lawyers whose day jobs couldn’t be more different. It’s easy to imagine North

Colonel Bert Kemp, the Pitt County public defender and the unit’s staff judge advocate, checked in while managing a steady flow of soldiers. And leaders like Colonel (Ret.) Mike McCann, the former staff judge advo

it means there’s a bigger purpose to my work,” says MAJ Jeff Jackson. For MAJ Jefferson Griffin, the gravity of the oath is something he frequently imparts to new attorneys joining the bar. “You’re sit ting here, you’re ready to take an oath...and this is real,” Griffin explains. “And remember every word that you’re saying,” he said, “because this is a heavy profession.” LTC Thorneloe views these oaths as a reflection of character. “I think the oaths that we take, in many ways, just reflect who we already are.” Ain’t No Egos in Chipotle “Maybe it’s because I’ve been here for so long,” MAJ Jackson told me, “but we all just got back from Chipotle, man. Ain’t no egos running wild in Chipotle.” The line stuck with me because it summed up exactly what I had been seeing throughout the day. Once these lawyers put on the uniform, the civilian hierarchy quickly dissolves. None of the political identities, public titles, or par tisan expectations follow them into the guard. Instead, there’s an easy camaraderie and a shared sense of purpose that feels almost rare in their civilian world. “When you put on the uniform, all that stuff fades away,” Jackson says. “There’s never been a moment where any of that par tisanship has intruded on the work that we do together. We are an inherently mission driven and results-oriented organization.” Colonel (Ret.) McCann agrees, highlighting the unique environment the guard provides. “I don’t care what your political position is, and that’s been very good,” he notes, describing the atmosphere as being “colle gial, very family oriented, and bolstered by

cate, and Lieutenant Colonel David Thorneloe, assistant US attorney in the Western District, offered insights dur ing brief lulls in their sched ules. Seeing them this way— rank first, résumé second— underscored how many accomplished North Carolina lawyers quietly ded icate their weekends and annual training to military service.

Carolina’s attorney general, a state appellate judge, a state senator, and a public defend er on opposite sides of a heat ed policy debate, an appellate opinion, or a piece of legisla tion. In the civilian world, the legal profession is inher ently adversarial, and the political climate is undeni ably polarized. Yet one week end a month and two weeks a

year, these exact individuals gather in the same room, put on the same uniform, and work together as a unified team. It’s one thing to read their résumés on paper; it’s another to see these lawyers mov ing through a drill weekend in identical fatigues, slipping in and out of briefings, pausing only long enough to talk between tasks. Over the course of the visit, I met members of the North Carolina National Guard’s JAG Corps wherever their duties allowed. I caught Major Jeff Jackson—the attorney general of North Carolina—in an “office” that genuinely may have been a broom closet. Major Jefferson Griffin, who serves on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, sat down with me in between assignments to share his perspective. Lieutenant Colonel Danny Britt, a state sen ator, and I talked while walking across the compound on his way to the next obligation.

In speaking with these public-servant lawyer-soldiers, a clear theme emerges: the remarkable ability to silence outside noise, set aside personal politics, and subordinate substantial civilian identities to a shared, higher mission. It is a model that the broader legal profession could greatly benefit from emulating. The Power of the Oath Private attorneys are among the few citi zens in North Carolina who take an oath sim ply to perform their daily jobs. For the lawyers in the JAG Corps, that civilian oath (and public official oath) is layered with a military one, creating a powerful foundation of duty. When asked if taking multiple oaths cre ates conflict, the resounding answer is that they reinforce one another. “I love the fact that both of my jobs require an oath, because

SUMMER 2026

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