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The congratulatory calls and e-mails started pouring in to Betty Quick's office earlier this week, many from friends and colleagues she hadn’t seen in years. Even a former law school professor and some classmates called to send along their well-wishes.

The attention is understandable, though. Quick, the Managing Member of Womble Carlyle’s Winston-Salem office, has been named the seventh annual winner of the North Carolina Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism Award. Quick received her award Wednesday night in Raleigh at the 74th annual meeting of the North Carolina State Bar.

The Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism Award was established by Burley Mitchell, then the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and now a Womble Carlyle attorney. The award honors a North Carolina attorney, law firm or organization for contributions to the betterment of the legal profession. A committee comprised of judges, attorneys and law school students, decides on the annual winner.

But what is professionalism in the legal arena? Quick said, "It's hard to put a definitional wrapper around it." But she said professionalism must be more than just a minimum standard of required ethics. Professionalism means aspiring to make the legal profession the best it can be, not only for clients, but also for the public in general.

"Lawyers need to support their professional organizations," Quick said.

Quick has long been active in the American, North Carolina and Forsyth County bar associations and in 1997-98, served as President of the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA). She made promoting the highest professional standards for lawyers a main focus of her tenure as NCBA president.

In addition, Quick has been a member of the North Carolina State Bar Board of Law Examiners, the past president of the Winston-Salem Estate Planning Council and a past state chairman of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She has worked extensively in writing and editing numerous legal publications, including the North Carolina Estate Administration Manual and Probate and Property, a publication of the Real Property and Probate Section of the American Bar Association.

Professionalism also means mentoring young attorneys to help them learn to respect their profession and the law, Quick said.

She noted that she received that type of mentoring from William F. Womble Sr. (who won the Commission on Professionalism Award in 2001) and Leon Rice when she started at Womble Carlyle. Those legendary attorneys took an interest in her career and urged her to get involved in the North Carolina Bar Association. She did, joining in 1974.

Their advice has served her well, she said. Working with the various bar associations has given her the opportunity to expand her skills, network with other attorneys and give back to the community through various legal services initiatives. She now tries to pass that same wisdom on to young attorneys, both at Womble Carlyle and outside the firm. Quick has taught numerous CLE courses for the bar associations, for example.

As she interacts with young attorneys, she said she has been pleased by a greater emphasis on professionalism in the nation’s law schools.

"When I was in law school, courses on professionalism weren't taught," Quick said. "Law students who graduate now have more of a sense of what’s expected."

Finally, Quick said professionalism means attorneys using their skills to help their communities. She certainly has, as she has been a member of the boards of directors for The Cannon Foundation, Inc., Reynolda House, Inc., Wake Forest University Health Sciences and the Health Care Advisory Committee of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

But Mel Wright has a much simpler definition of professionalism.

"If you want to define professionalism, you just need a picture of Betty Quick," Wright, executive director of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, said. "She has risen to the top of every organization in which she has participated.

"She is an exemplary leader; an expert in her area of practice; a role model and mentor for new lawyers; a well-respected member of her community; a person of strong character and integrity; and finally, a wife, mother and friend in whom to be proud.

"The Chief Justice's Professionalism Award was created to highlight the work and lives of outstanding lawyers like Betty Quick."

Quick says all of the recent attention is flattering, but garnering accolades never has been her goal. Instead, she said she simply has tried to honor a profession that means so much to her.

"Burley Mitchell says, 'The law is a calling; it's not just a job,'" she said. "And he's absolutely right."