Preparing for Disaster: How Young Lawyers Can Ready Themselves and Their Clients

Taylor, a woman with black hair, wears a pink blouse and black jacket.

Taylor Dewberry

Shameka, a Black woman with black hair, wears a white shirt and black jacket.

Shameka Rolla

By Taylor Dewberry and Shameka Rolla

A natural disaster doesn’t end when the wind dies down or the flooding subsides. For the individuals, families, and communities affected, the disaster can drag on for months, even years.

Issues of inequity and unequal access to information/resources are further exacerbated by such disasters and often result in unequal access to disaster relief for several communities, including individuals with disabilities and racially and ethnically diverse communities. Read more

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The Pursuit of Truth

Bain, a white man with white hair, wears a white shirt and black jacket.By W. Bain Jones Jr.

The pursuit of truth is the cornerstone of law. At North Carolina’s inception and when the present Constitution was enacted in the 1800s, this guiding precedent was in the forefront of our leaders’ actions. It is reflected in the Declaration of Rights where it is stated:

Sec. 18.  Court shall be open.

All courts shall be open; every person for an injury done him in his lands, goods, person, or reputation shall have remedy by due course of law; and right and justice shall be administered without favor, denial, or delay.

Sec. 19. Law of the land; equal protection of the laws. Read more

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45th Annual Bankruptcy Institute: Registration Is Now Live!

NCBA Members,

Registration for the 45th Annual Bankruptcy Institute is now live! Click here to view the agenda, speakers, and registration information.

This year’s Bankruptcy Institute will be held on November 11 and 12, 2022, at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro. A live webcast will be available for participants who may not be able to attend in person. The agenda for this year’s Institute includes sessions on Subchapter V issues, North Carolina’s hemp and cannabis laws, a discussion of home equity issues in consumer cases, and much more.

Participants may earn up to 9.25 hours in approved North Carolina MCLE credit, including one hour each of ethics and technology training. Early registration ends on October 21, 2022. The NCBA Bankruptcy Section hopes to see you this November!

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Beyond Court-Ordered Mediation: Should the Dispute Resolution Section Create A Task Force to Evaluate Future Dispute Resolution Needs of North Carolinians?

Jim, a white man with white hair, wears a white shirt and black jacket.By Jim Cooley

The NCBA Dispute Resolution Section (DR Section) started as a committee of the NCBA which imagined a future, first, of court-ordered arbitration for small claims matters and, later, of court-ordered mediation of civil cases throughout the State’s Superior Court Division. Over time, the Committee successfully developed and implemented programs for the court-ordered mediation of most civil disputes in the Superior Courts and many family law disputes in the District Courts. But the world of dispute resolution is being transformed before our eyes, as Colin Rule reminded the participants in the 2021 Conflict Resolution Day program sponsored by DRC. Read more

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Action Requested: Race & Equity Committee of the NCBA Dispute Resolution Section

At the NCBA’s Dispute Resolution Section Council meeting on March 17, 2022, the Council unanimously approved the following motion, made by the Race & Equity Committee:

We move for the NCBA Dispute Resolution Section to adopt an initiative to actively support, promote and encourage the designation and appointment of mediators of color in North Carolina consistent with the NCBA guidelines that seek to develop equity and inclusion and to dismantle systemic racism in our justice system.

Accordingly, the Committee is beginning the “Try Someone New” campaign, in which we plan to circulate a curated list of mediators of color with their backgrounds to legal practitioners in North Carolina who need mediators for their cases and encourage them to consider contacting them when they need mediators.

If you are interested in being included on this curated list, or if you’re interested in supporting this campaign in any other way, please email [email protected] by October 1, 2022. Thank you for your time, and we hope to be a resource for all in this endeavor.

Thank you,
Kerry Burleigh & Peter Singh, Race & Equity Committee Co-chairs
Kate Deiter-Maradei, Project Head

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You Cannot be Both an Employee and a Partner of a Partnership

John, a white man with brown hair and blue eyes, wears a blue jacket, white shirt, and blue tie. By John G. Hodnette

A person who is both an employee and a partner in a partnership is not treated as an employee for tax purposes. Rev. Rul. 69-184 states “bona fide members of a partnership are not employees of the partnership [for employment tax purposes because a partner is] a self-employed individual.” An employee will generally be treated as a partner if he or she (a) receives a profits interest, (b) receives a vested capital interest, or (c) makes a Section 83(b) election. Read more

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Let’s Talk About It: Welcome To The Ethics Committee

Kimberly is a Black woman with brown hair and glasses. She wears a blue jacket and white neckalce.By Kimberly M. Johnson

How many times did Dad say, “Do the right thing.”

How about when Grandma said, “Do it right the first time, and you don’t have to do it again.”

Or better yet, when an office mate quips, “Make sure to C-Y-A!”

In an odd way, those expressions have origins in the working man’s or woman’s view of ethics.

Let’s talk about it. Read more

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Sleeping With the Fishes

By Lisa LeFante 

Let’s face it, being a lawyer is hard. Being a family lawyer is even harder. We all know that lawyers get a bad rap . . . What do you call 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? . . . A good start! Family lawyers get an even worse rap . . . our clients blame us for their moral lapses (no, I did not tell you to sleep with your neighbor when I said you could go on vacation) and our opposing parties call us the devil incarnate and file lawsuits against us. Read more

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eCourts Training Update

By Matt Van Sickle

Hello Litigation Section Members. We have received an additional update on eCourts training and implementation.

The Administrative Office of the Courts training schedule for the eCourts program can be found here. One point of clarification since the initial announcement is that the training is available for attorneys and legal staff. There remain options for virtual and in-person training, but please note that September’s live training for Wake County will take place in new locations.

The four pilot counties for eCourts are Harnett, Johnston, Lee, and Wake, and the AOC has announced a target implementation date of October 10, 2022. Once the program is live, all attorneys will have to use the eCourts File & Serve system for filings in those counties.

In addition to the AOC’s training, on September 15, 2022, the Litigation Section is hosting a CLE, online and live in-person in Cary, that will include a one-hour presentation from the AOC concerning eCourts. We encourage our members to take advantage of both the AOC’s training and the CLE.

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Wells Hall Becomes Chair of the ABA Section of Taxation

By Herman Spence III

Our colleague Wells Hall is now the chair of the ABA Tax Section. Congratulations Wells! Wells is an attorney with Nelson Mullins and a long-time mainstay of the North Carolina Bar Tax Section.

Recently Wells publicly defended appropriate funding of the IRS. We appreciate Wells’ principled position, notwithstanding the temptation to demonize the IRS.

Herman Spence III is an attorney with Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte.

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