Claire O’Brien
Michael Cohen
By Claire O’Brien and Michael Cohen
December 2 | Member Social at Bowstring Pizza & Brewyard | 5 to 6 p.m.
December 9 | Virtual Escape Room | 6 p.m.
December 10 | YLD Winter Council Meeting | 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.
December 10 | YLD Social | 5 to 7 p.m.
January 13 | Firsthand Experiences with Salary Negotiation | noon to 1 p.m.
Sarah R. Clark
David Joyner
By Sarah R. Clark and David Joyner
The YLD and the North Carolina Bar Foundation are excited to announce the first-ever YLD Season of Giving Recurring Gift Campaign which kicks off tomorrow on #GivingTuesday (Nov. 30) and runs through noon EST on Dec. 10.
Our aim through this campaign is to increase recurring gifts to the NCBF in a way that’s financially doable for YLD members. We know that as a young lawyer, annual giving can seem financially unfeasible. Starting Nov. 30, a recurring donation as low as $5.00/month (less than your Netflix subscription!) will enter you into a raffle for exclusive prizes. Prize winners will be selected by random daily drawings from all eligible entries. We will select daily prize winners each business day from donations made Nov. 30 through Dec. 10, and then announce two grand prize winners during our quarterly YLD meeting on Friday, Dec. 10.
The Elon University Poll is conducting a survey of young lawyers in North Carolina who are in their first ten years of practice to gather information about a variety of topics, including views on the legal profession, running for office, current employment and demographic information. This survey also includes a portion of questions focused on salary and benefits which I suggested and was included by the Elon University Poll staff.
The YLD believes that this survey will serve the profession well, and we encourage YLD members to participate in this survey once they receive the link via email from Elon University Poll. The responses to this survey are voluntary, anonymous, and confidential. Once the poll closes, the results will be shared with YLD members. Our hope is that this information will serve as a benchmark and a tool to help young lawyers advocate for their own compensation, benefits, resources and more within their current workplace or at a future job.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the forefront of our work as an organization. As part of the original purpose of the poll survey, you’ll notice a few important questions.
This Poll Survey features demographics questions regarding race, ethnicity and gender identity. These questions ensure we can (1) identify and assess any racial, gender or other wage gaps within our profession (2) support pay transparency and equity, and (3) promote diversity and inclusion efforts at legal employers.
This survey also directly corresponds with other initiatives and programing that the YLD – and specifically the Law Student Outreach Committee – have planned this year. On November 1, the Law Student Outreach Committee hosted a Salary Negotiations 101 event featuring Karen Chopra, LPC, CCC, NCC, founder of ChopraCareers. Karen covered key negotiating concepts, how to handle salary questions in interviews and online applications and how to ensure interviewees get the best deal from their employer. The Law Student Committee is also hosting a Firsthand Experiences with Salary Negotiations event in December that will feature a conversation with two attorneys and a law firm recruiter who will share their firsthand experiences with salary negotiation in the legal field. Be on the lookout for more information coming soon. We hope to see you there!
North Carolina’s Superior and District courts are undergoing an operational sea change: electronic filing. For those of us who practice before federal courts and state appellate courts, electronic filing will be nothing new. Federal courts have used PACER since 1988[1] and North Carolina’s appellate courts have used electronic filing since 1998.[2] But for many of our colleagues, the Administrative Office of the Courts’ new journey into electronic filing will be a great departure from our standard practice at the state level and we, as practitioners, have a great deal to learn. To borrow from Homer, even an attorney learns something once it hits him.[3] But this is not something which we must be hit about the head with to accept. It is something we should embrace, as it will strengthen our practice and benefit all involved.
North Carolina’s Superior and District courts are undergoing an operational sea change: electronic filing. For those of us who practice before federal courts and state appellate courts, electronic filing will be nothing new. Federal courts have used PACER since 1988[1] and North Carolina’s appellate courts have used electronic filing since 1998.[2] But for many of our colleagues, the Administrative Office of the Courts’ new journey into electronic filing will be a great departure from our standard practice at the state level and we, as practitioners, have a great deal to learn. To borrow from Homer, even an attorney learns something once it hits him.[3] But this is not something which we must be hit about the head with to accept. It is something we should embrace, as it will strengthen our practice and benefit all involved.
Compiled by Jessica Junqueira
Alterity ADR, the first national alternative dispute resolution firm to be founded and led by a Black woman, announced that Danae Woodward has joined the firm. Woodward focuses her practice in labor and employment law. She has experience both as a litigator and as an in-house attorney. Woodward practiced law as in-house counsel for 12 years in Charlotte and now practices with Woodward & Woodward PLLC, also located in Charlotte. She is a North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission Certified Superior Court Mediator. She holds a J.D. from Emory University School of Law and a B.A. from the University Of Texas at Austin.
April Giancola has joined the senior staff of Campbell Law School as the Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development. Giancola has 21 years of experience in legal and program management. She was the Director of Public Interest Advising for the University of North Carolina School of Law’s Career Development Office. She served as the Chief Legal Program Officer for Disability Rights N.C., as well as a civil attorney and post-conviction managing attorney for N.C. Prisoner Legal Services Inc. After earning her J.D. from the New England School of Law, she worked in the Maricopa County (Arizona) Public Defender’s Office as a trial attorney. Giancola also holds a B.S. in speech and communications from Emerson College. Giancola is certified to practice law in the Eastern, Middle and Western District Courts of North Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a member of the NCBA Minorities in the Profession Committee.
Hall Booth Smith announced that Brock Wolf has joined the firm’s Charlotte office. His area of focus is medical malpractice defense, data privacy and cyber security, and general liability litigation. Wolf has experience serving as a law clerk and summer associate with the firm. He received a J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law. There, he was the managing editor of the Wake Forest Journal of Law & Policy. He obtained a B.A. from Virginia Tech.
Emily L. Guarascio has joined the Law Office of Manisha P. Patel, PLLC. Guarascio will focus her practice on family law. She earned a J.D. from Elon University School of Law, where she was a member of the Innocence Project, the Women’s Law Association, and Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. She also holds a B.A. in Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Adelphi University.
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The American Bar Association reported in 2021 that young lawyers in the United States have an average of $108,000 of law school debt. In an effort to assist those lawyers who have dedicated their practice to public service, North Carolina Legal Education Assistance Foundation is offering public service attorneys the opportunity to apply for loan repayment assistance. Decisions will be based on debt load and income.
The application period closes December 3, 2021!
Before applying, please review the following eligibility requirements:
If you meet the above eligibility requirements, this link will bring you to the application page for NC LEAF: https://ncleaf.org/apply-now/. Thank you for your service!
By Margaret Currin
Wayne Ronald Boyles III was sworn in as the newest member of the North Carolina Rules Review Commission at its meeting on October 21, 2021, having been appointed to that position by the North Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Tim Moore.
Wayne Ronald Boyles III
Wayne is a native of Mount Airy. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980 with a B.A. in political science. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1981 and served on the United States Senate staff of Senator Mack Mattingly of Georgia from January 1981 until April of 1982 when he joined the staff of United States Senator Jesse Helms, where he served until 2003. He then served at the United States Department of Energy in the George W. Bush Administration from 2003 until 2007, at which time he founded a government relations firm in Alexandria, Va.
In 2018, Wayne and his wife Stephanie moved to Pinehurst, where in 2020 he founded Milvian Bridge Government and Public Affairs, LLC.
Margaret Currin is a retired Professor at Campbell Law School, where she was also Associate Dean, and a former United States Attorney for the EDNC.
By Linda Nelson
On November 1, 2021, the Chief Judge of the Office of Administrative Hearings, Donald van der Vaart, issued a memorandum announcing all OAH records of every tax case will be available to the public following an administrative law judge’s final decision. https://www.oah.nc.gov/
The promotion of transparency in North Carolina tax appeals began two decades ago. At that time a taxpayer had the choice of paying an assessed tax and appealing to the Superior Court for de novo review or going through a prepayment administrative appeals process. The latter started with a hearing before an assistant Secretary of Revenue, appointed and employed by the Secretary of Revenue. The hearing at DOR was not governed by the rules of civil procedure, nor the rules of evidence, and taxpayers were rarely granted discovery. Yet, this proceeding set the record for all appeals that followed.
By Jim White
The Small Business Reorganization Act (“SBRA”), which added Subchapter V to Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, has been in effect for about 20 months. Small business debtors – principally defined as debtors with less than $2,725,625 in noncontingent liquidated debts under the Act (although Congress has raised that limit to $7.5 million through March 2022 as part of COVID-19 relief legislation) – may elect to have their cases administered under this new subchapter. A principal goal of the Act was to make Chapter 11 more accessible and affordable for small businesses. The Act does this in several ways, among them: allowing only the debtor to file a plan, generally requiring no disclosure statement, providing for the use of a form plan, eliminating creditors’ committees, eliminating the absolute priority rule, and permitting the court to cram down a plan of reorganization even if all classes of creditors oppose it. The most prominent change, though, is the creation of the Subchapter V trustee.
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