Introducing the NCBA Professional Vitality Committee

By Erna Womble
Welcome to the blog of the newly minted Professional Vitality Committee (PVC) of the NCBA!  I am Erna Womble, and it’s my honor to serve as Chair this year, and my pleasure to say that Holly Morris is serving as our Communities Manager (NCBA staff liaison).

But wait . . . What the dickens,” many of you might ask, is the Professional Vitality Committee?  I knew it as the Professional Wellness Committee, with its sub-group the Transitioning Lawyers Commission, as it was last year.”  Well, that’s a timely question and it will be a privilege to be your tour guide on the exciting journey on which this committee is embarking.

From wellness to vitality

But before we set out, a bit about the re-christening of this committee. Referring to the theme of the Annual Meeting, which centered on Professional Wellness, President LeAnn Nease Brown summed it up with characteristic eloquence:

“We are in a profession of helping others but to help others, we must take care of ourselves. Last year, President Grant combined our committees focusing on Professional Wellness. This year, Erna Womble will chair the committee with a focus on the well-being of legal professionals ­–from the beginning of career to winding down, to retired – not only on the stresses of the profession but on the joys of our life experiences: on living while lawyering. We have renamed the committee the Professional Vitality Committee because vitality is the state of being strong and active; it is the power of enduring, the capacity to live and develop. We celebrate the humanity of our profession, not only as lawyers and legal professionals but as parents and grandparents, musicians and rock climbers, hikers and stamp collectors, painters and poets, dreamers and dancers. Vitality is having the strength in ourselves and our community to have full lives as lawyers. Advancing the well-being of our members and our profession gives us wings.

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A Story Too Captivating To Go Untold

By Russell Rawlings
By the time you read this, Steve Epstein may be famous. His first book, “Murder on Birchleaf Drive: The True Story of the Michelle Young Murder Case,” is that good.

The true crime story chronicles the trials, appeals and conviction of the victim’s husband, Jason Young.

Here’s what fellow NCBA member David Rudolf, famous in his own right for his defense of novelist Michael Peterson and resulting Netflix series “The Staircase,” had to say about it: “A compelling and accurate description of a fascinating murder case, from the initial investigation through the twists and turns of two trials, and all of the strategic decisions in between. One of the best true crime books I have read. Very entertaining.”

The murder, which also claimed the couple’s unborn son, occurred in the couple’s Raleigh home on Nov. 3, 2006. On Nov. 30, 2018, following multiple trials and appeals, the N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Paul Ridgeway’s ruling that Jason Young was not entitled to a third trial.

Thus, as Epstein writes in the book’s final paragraph, “… barring a turn of events of a magnitude far greater than the hung jury or the first Court of Appeals’ decision, Jason Lynn Young will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

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Checking In: August 26, 2019

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Adam deNobriga joins the Charlotte office of Bell, Davis & Pitt as a director. He has nine years of experience as a litigator, particularly focusing on construction defect, property damage, and professional malpractice. deNobriga has worked on cases in N.C. Superior Court, N.C. Business Court, and federal courts. He is licensed to practice law in Tennessee as well as North Carolina.

 

 

 

Jared Mobley has been appointed managing partner of the Charlotte office of K&L Gates. He focuses his practice on complex aspects of U.S. federal, state and local taxation, including creating and implementing tax-efficient structures for the firm’s clients. He holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Laws in tax law from New York University.

 

 

 

 

Spencer Beard joins the Wilmington office of McAngus Goudelock & Courie. Beard is a litigation attorney of 15 years, with a particular focus on construction and trucking, and he is admitted to the bar in both Mississippi and North Carolina. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi.

 

 

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