The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Life is a journey. We all learn from our experiences. And if we’re paying attention, we become better people and lawyers not only from our successes but also from our failures. When I first started practicing, I made an effort to soak up as much knowledge and insight as I could from older, more experienced lawyers. Now that I’m one of them, I’ve taken on mentoring roles to help young lawyers just beginning to practice. If I’m honest, more time has passed than I would like to admit, but I still remember what it was like to be young, inexperienced, and fighting for my place at the table.
What appears below is a note to my younger self, with a bit of knowledge and experience I gained since I started practicing law more than 25 years ago. The idea was to help young lawyers – and maybe some not so young – learn from the experience of others, and perhaps come to terms a bit with the stress and pressure of being a new lawyer finding your way in an adversarial profession, whether in a transactional or a litigation practice.
A complete list of guidance would be endless, and there are likely as many good pieces of advice as there are practicing lawyers in the state. What appears below is in part unique to my experience, but also broad enough that others might benefit.
Impact breeds more impact. For six years now, the Legal Legends of Color Awards have highlighted the lives and careers of some of the most impactful attorneys of color in our state. Their contributions, lives, careers, and stories have impacted not only the clients and communities they have served or still serve, but also the attorneys who have followed in their footsteps. Many of those attorneys have now become legends themselves. The impact of a Legend is endless, and this year, with record registration numbers totaling two hundred and fifty-one, we were honored to elevate through video and virtual presentations the stories of a new class of legends. At the 123rd North Carolina Bar Association Annual Meeting and the sixth annual Legal Legends of Color Awards Celebration, we welcomed the following honorees into a distinguished and growing list of Legal Legends of Color:
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA MIPhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA MIP2021-07-14 16:03:222021-07-14 16:42:162021 Legal Legends of Color Award Honorees
Each year, the Family Law Section is usually fortunate enough to have sufficient funds left over to make several donations. This year, the Council elected to make donations to the UNC School of Government in honor of Cheryl Howell and to the North Carolina Bar Foundation with the funds earmarked for Free Legal Answers.
The UNC School of Government, and specifically Cheryl Howell, is a valuable resource for family law attorneys. Cheryl Howell is a wealth of information and is always able to provide an answer when one is needed. North Carolina is lucky to have Cheryl, and the Council appreciates her devotion to family law. A donation of $500.00 was made in Cheryl’s name.
Amy Wang is the incoming chair of the Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Section, and she is an attorney at Ward and Smith, P.A., based in their New Bern office. She leads the environmental practice for her firm, where she has worked for 17 years.
Amy was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Anchorage, Alaska, when her father was drafted by the U.S. Army after graduating from the University of Kansas with a degree in U.S. history. Amy’s family moved a lot after her father left the Army to begin his career with Mobil Oil: Kansas to Nebraska, back to Kansas, back and forth between Chicago, Illinois, Virginia and Pennsylvania (six different junior high and high schools). After graduating from high school in Virginia, Amy attended the University of Virginia as an undergraduate and spent fall semester of her junior year at University College London. During summer breaks after her first, second, and third years of undergraduate school and for a year after graduating in 1992, she worked for the Wiley Rein & Fielding law firm in Washington, D.C.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00EnvironmentalLawhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngEnvironmentalLaw2021-07-09 11:25:432021-07-09 11:25:43Spotlight: Amy Wang
In August 2021, the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center (NCPBRC) will partner with the Mecklenburg County Clerk of Superior Court’s Office and SelfServe Center, as well as the Charlotte DA’s and PD’s Offices, to offer advice regarding applicants’ eligibility for expunction relief under North Carolina law. Applicants will meet with a volunteer attorney to learn whether they are eligible or ineligible for relief.
This will be the fourth clinic of its kind. The previous three were held in October 2019, June 2020, and February 2021. For the first time, the project contemplates recruiting paralegal volunteers to review records and prepare petitions in advance of the clinic. Each petition should take about 15 minutes to prepare, and approximately 60 clients are expected to be eligible for relief. Virtual training will be provided by NCPBRC and partner staff.
The NCBA Professional Vitality Committee creates sourced articles centered on reducing inherent stress and enhancing vitality in the lives of legal professionals and offers those resources as a benefit for members of the North Carolina Bar Association.
I started a trial on Feb. 17, 2020, four weeks before the coronavirus covered the Earth and began to shut down our lives. Before that, there was a week of pre-trial motions. For five weeks – and really even before that – I had long days, followed by late nights and early mornings. I was living week to week, and more often, day to day.
I try not to bring work stress home, but there was no hiding it. My wife Angie could see how worn down I was when I got home from court, knowing I still had several hours of work to get ready for the next day. Every night she would ask, “What can I do to help?” There was nothing she could do, but the thought was helpful in itself.
On campus or off campus – that is still the question for school officials following the Supreme Court’s recent First Amendment opinion: Mahoney Area School District v. B.L., 594 U.S. ___, 141 S. Ct 2038, 2021 U.S. LEXIS 3395 (2021). For more than 50 years, the Supreme Court has managed to balance two competing First Amendment principles: (1) that a student does not shed all of their free speech rights at the “schoolhouse gate,” and (2) that public school officials have a special interest in regulating certain aspects of student speech that may cause a material and substantial disruption to the school environment. See Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503, 506-07 (1969).
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MIP’s Diverse Perspectives is a monthly blog feature to spotlight a member from North Carolina’s community of diverse attorneys and legal professionals. Members have the opportunity to share a personal perspective through a brief set of interview questions.
This month’s perspective is courtesy of William D. Ramos; Ramos Law, PA.; Raleigh.
What law school did you attend and what was your graduation year?
Florida A&M University College of Law, 2017.
What inspired or prompted you to become an attorney?
Seeing and experiencing the powerlessness of the average person against the “powers that be.”
Please describe a barrier or obstacle you have overcome in your professional career?
Being an older, new attorney is fraught with its own barriers or challenges. As a Hispanic, the first obstacle is having people believe you are, in fact, an attorney. Considering that only 5% of lawyers are Hispanic, a sad fact, it is not surprising to have people question my being a lawyer.
Do you have a message of encouragement for others who may have experienced similar challenges or adversity as a diverse attorney?
Do not give up. I’ll share what I’ve always told my children and now my grandchildren. Take a knee, catch your breath, then get up and move. Anywhere is better than on your knees.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00NCBA MIPhttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngNCBA MIP2021-07-02 12:44:222021-07-02 12:44:22MIP’s Diverse Perspectives: William D. Ramos
Now that the situation at the pump seems to have recovered and returned to normal, it is time to figure out what actually happened in the Colonial pipeline attack and what lessons, if any, we can learn from yet another high profile cyberattack involving ransomware.
First, a few introductory words and some background on ransomware: ransomware is a common form of cyberattack in our time, and it involves attackers deploying code onto the victim’s network that results in encrypting files and folders throughout the network. According to the FBI, the best way to contain the attack is to block the code from moving across the network. For recovery from the attack, companies often rely on sound backup practices that allow them to restore encrypted files and folders without losing too much data. Of course, victims of ransomware attacks can also pay ransom, but that practice is still discouraged by the FBI and in some cases actually forbidden since the groups behind the attack are deemed sanctioned foreign entities.
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