Leading Off

Welcome to the May 2021 digital edition of North Carolina Lawyer, the flagship publication of the North Carolina Bar Association.

What a year! In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the important work of the NCBA and North Carolina Bar Foundation has continued in earnest. President Mark Holt provides an excellent summary of recent and upcoming activities in his President’s Perspective.

The Young Lawyers Division remains, in a word, unstoppable. YLD Chair Kristen Kirby outlines the exciting new Lunch & Learn series in her column, and additional coverage is devoted to a record-breaking Legal Feeding Frenzy.

Catherine Sanders Reach, director of the NCBA Center for Practice Management, devotes her column to the importance of first impressions which occur when individuals respond to the universal marketing call to action: “Contact Us.” Laura Graham of Wake Forest University School of Law also provides valuable advice in the latest edition of Writing That Works when she discusses nominalization – the practice of turning “a perfectly good verb, adjective, or adverb into a noun.”

Our features run the gamut, yet they all share a common denominator in telling the stories of our members and volunteers. This edition includes a member profile on Tawanda Foster Artis of the N.C. Community Colleges System and an interview with member Kirk Warner regarding his recent book, “Zone of Action: A JAG’s Journey Inside Operations Cobra II and Iraqi Freedom.”

There’s coverage devoted to the Foundation’s highly successful restart of Wills for Heroes and its presentation of scholarships to children of slain or permanently disabled law enforcement officers through the Hubert B. Humphrey Justice Fund. A young lawyer and a young doctor look back on their Law Day victory 15 years ago, and Jessica Junqueira continues her coverage of our Law Student Representatives with interviews of some very special second– and third-year law students.

Awards season, NCBA-style, is in full swing, and so are plans to resume this integral component of the NCBA Annual Meeting, including a special ceremony dedicated to the Legal Legends of Color. Former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley received the Liberty Bell Award on Law Day, and numerous NCBA Sections recently presented their awards as well.

Pick and choose from the May 2021 issue page, or scroll conveniently from article to article through the entire edition utilizing the previous article, next article options at the end of each piece. 


Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.


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