My practice experience includes administrative, domestic and personal injury law with a focus on employment law the first half of my practice years. I then focused almost exclusively on employment law.  I have been predominantly an employee's lawyer, but I have occasionally defended employers as well.  I have tried cases in state and federal courts of North Carolina. I serve as an administrative law judge for the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (NC's OSHA), and I serve on panels for the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and National Arbitration and Mediation (NAM) and upon request by private parties.

I was on the faculty for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Negotiations course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Law School from 1987-1996. I continue to assist with negotiation and mediation workshops there every year.

I have been active in Alternative Dispute Resolution throughout my professional career. My 50-state study of Referees, or Special Masters, received a Center for Public Resources Legal Program Award for Excellence and Innovation in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Dispute Management. I served as one of the Reporters to the NCBA's initial Task Force on Dispute Resolution and served on the Dispute Resolution Committee of the NCBA until the Dispute Resolution Section was established. I served as its first Vice Chair and then became Chair.

Prior to law school (1974-1980), I worked as the director of a small southern city's human relations commission, establishing it as a department of city government to improve relations between black and white communities.

• MBA-JD - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984; International Law, Cambridge University, England, Summer 1982
• B.A. - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1973 (Economics -- International Studies)

ADR TRAINING:

NADN Advanced Mediator Training 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015

• Numerous CLE's sponsored by NC Bar Association's Dispute Resolution Section
• NITA faculty [National Institute for Trial Advocacy] Southeast Negotiation Workshop (1987-1996)
• Arbitrator I and Arbitrator II (AAA)
• Ethics & Disclosure (AAA)
• Safeguarding, Deciding & Writing Awards (AAA)
• Dealing with Delay Tactics in Arbitration (AAA)
• Arbitration Seminar (National Arbitration Forum)
• Certification Mediation Course in 1992 with Dispute Management, Inc. (David U. Strawn, Orlando, FL)

• Chair and Vice-Chair, Dispute Resolution Section, North Carolina Bar Association, 1993 - 1995
• Member, Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers, Martindale-Hubbell (A/V rating)
• Member, Raleigh Rotary Club, 1986 - present; President, 2014-2015

Admitted to practice in all state courts of N. Carolina and Eastern and Middle Districts of United States District Court
and Fourth and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals

Please call for details.