Awards and Recognition

A credential is only worth what you can check. Every recognition on this page links back to the organization that granted it, so you can confirm it yourself rather than take our word for it.

Kevin Bunn has practiced workers’ compensation law in North Carolina since 1993 and has spent that entire career on one side of it, representing injured workers. The recognitions below come from three different kinds of source: the state bar that regulates North Carolina lawyers, the attorneys who practice across from him, and the editors who cover the state’s legal profession.

North Carolina State BarBoard Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law

This is the credential that matters most, and it is the only one on this page issued by the body that actually licenses North Carolina attorneys. Board certification is not a listing or a ranking. It requires substantial ongoing practice in the specialty, a written examination, peer review from judges and opposing lawyers, additional continuing education every year, and recertification on a recurring cycle. A lawyer who stops meeting the standard loses it.

Only a small fraction of North Carolina lawyers hold the workers’ compensation specialty. Kevin has held it for years and was most recently recertified under the current standards.

Verify NC Bar #19848   About legal specialization

2027 edition, listed since 2022The Best Lawyers in America

Kevin is recognized in the 2027 edition (the 33rd) of The Best Lawyers in America for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants. Best Lawyers records him as recognized since 2022. Selection is by confidential peer review. Lawyers cannot pay to be included, and the 2027 edition drew evaluations from more than 48,000 attorneys.

What makes peer review useful to an injured worker is who is doing the voting. The lawyers evaluating Kevin are the same defense attorneys and fellow claimants’ attorneys who see his work at the Industrial Commission, across a mediation table, and on appeal.

View the Best Lawyers profile   Standards of inclusion

2026Lawyer of the Year, Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, Raleigh

Best Lawyers names a single Lawyer of the Year in each practice area in each metropolitan area. For the 2026 edition, that attorney for workers’ compensation claimants in the Raleigh region was Kevin Bunn. The designation goes to the lawyer who received the highest overall peer-feedback score in that specific practice area and market.

Read more about the 2026 Lawyer of the Year recognition.

2027 listNorth Carolina Super Lawyers

Super Lawyers names attorneys to its state lists once a year, drawing on peer nominations, independent research, and evaluation against 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. No more than 5 percent of the attorneys in a state are selected in any given year. Kevin was selected to the 2027 North Carolina Super Lawyers list.

Selection is not for sale. A special master who reviewed the process found that Super Lawyers does “not permit a lawyer to buy one’s way onto the list, nor is there any requirement for the purchase of any product for inclusion in the lists or any quid pro quo of any kind or nature.”

Read the Super Lawyers selection process

2026, inaugural classNorth Carolina Legal 250

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly launched the North Carolina Legal 250 in 2026 to recognize 250 of the state’s most influential attorneys across 27 practice areas. Honorees are chosen by the publication’s editorial team rather than by nomination purchase or peer vote, which makes it a different kind of signal from the peer-reviewed lists above.

Six workers’ compensation attorneys statewide were named to the inaugural class. Four of the six represent injured workers. Kevin was one of them.

View the Legal 250 profile

Fellow, College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers

The College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers admits fellows by invitation, drawing from attorneys on both the claimant and defense sides who have practiced in the field for at least 20 years and are nominated by their peers. Fellowship is a career recognition rather than an annual list, and it is one of the few honors in this practice area that both sides of the bar take part in awarding.

2024 to 2025President, North Carolina Advocates for Justice

Kevin served as President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the statewide association of attorneys who represent injured and wronged people, and he remains a longtime member of its Workers’ Compensation Section Executive Committee. He also presents regularly at the North Carolina Industrial Commission’s annual Educational Conference, which is where the state’s workers’ compensation bar and the Commission’s own staff go to stay current.

Published authority in North Carolina workers’ compensation law

Kevin is co-editor of North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law: A Practical Guide to Success at Every Stage of a Claim, published by LexisNexis. It is a practitioner’s treatise, written for the lawyers who handle these claims for a living. If you want a sense of how he approaches the law itself rather than how his peers rate him, our guide to North Carolina workers’ compensation covers the same ground in plain language.

Peer and client ratings

Kevin holds an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest available, based on confidential ratings from other attorneys and from the judiciary. He also carries a 10.0 “Superb” rating on Avvo. Client reviews are collected separately on our reviews page.