NC General Assembly Adjourns 2024 Legislative Session For Final Time, 2025 Session To Begin In January

Elizabeth, a white woman with blond hair, wears a white blouse and white blazer.By Elizabeth Yelverton

The North Carolina General Assembly adjourned the 2024 legislative session “sine die,” or for the final time, on Friday, December 13, with plans already set for the 2025 legislative session to begin in early January. Despite the 2024 session being a legislative “short session,” NCGA members met almost every month in 2024 and passed a total of 58 bills (which has been summarized by NCGA staff). The NCGA did not pass a new state budget package this year, but because the NC legislature operates on a biennium basis, lawmakers are expected to pass a full state budget package for 2025-2027 in the upcoming legislative “long session.”

As in the past few legislative sessions, North Carolina will continue to be governed by politically split legislative and executive branches in 2025, with a Democratic governor and Republican-controlled House and Senate. Unlike in immediate past sessions, however, the 2025 NC House of Representatives will not have a Republican “supermajority,” or control of at least two-thirds of the chamber, which allows a chamber to easily override a gubernatorial veto when all members vote in line with their party affiliation.

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Congratulations to Two New NC Board Certified Specialists in Appellate Practice!

Amie, a white woman with light brown hair, wears a teal blouse and dark grey jacket. By Amie C. Sivon 

Congratulations are in order to Appellate Practice Section members Quintin Byrd and former Justice Samuel Ervin for becoming the most recent North Carolina Board Certified Legal Specialists in Appellate Practice!

The full list of 2024 specialists for all practice areas can be found online.

To become a certified appellate practice specialist, there are certain requirements including devoting a significant amount of hours each year to the practice area, obtaining CLE credits in appellate practice, peer review, and passing an exam. If you are interested in learning more about the specific requirements, information can be found on the State Bar’s website.

Further, we have many section members who have achieved specialization status and are happy to answer any questions you have.

Next year’s application should become available in March, and the applications are typically due around May 1. Congrats and best wishes!

Amie Sivon is the Chair of the Appellate Practice Council. 

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Everybody Has a Plan . . .

Coleman, a white man with brown hair, wears a pale blue shirt, red tie and black jacket.By Coleman Cowan

Life as a lawyer can be a battle. Clients are demanding. Opposing counsel can be adversarial. And sometimes the greatest burden we carry is the one we put on ourselves: to work harder, be better, and achieve more. Years ago, I learned knowing how to practice law was not enough. In order to thrive – to be not only successful, but happy – a lawyer’s skill set had to include mental focus, and yes, professional vitality.

How do we do that in a profession filled with adversity and risk, where one slip can spell doom, both for your clients and your career? For the answer, indulge me in a lesson I learned from my past career as a journalist.

In the spring of 2016, I spent several weeks at the United States Naval Academy reporting a story about the boxing program there. Boxing is not only embedded in the culture of the Naval Academy, it’s a core requirement: all Midshipmen – male and female – are required to learn to box as soon as they arrive at Annapolis. Why? The Naval Academy uses boxing as a laboratory where they can put students in an environment of controlled stress forcing them to draw on their own resources and capabilities to think, strategize, and plan, all while withstanding an opponent trying to knock you down.

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