PRACTICE AREAS

• Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
• Construction Defects
• Class Actions
• Business Torts
• Products Liability
• Serious Personal Injury
• Wrongful Death
• Professional Negligence

EDUCATION

• Wake Forest University (B.A., summa cum laude, Politics, 1995)
  Honors: Phi Beta Kappa; Claude Richards Award for Highest GPA in Politics Department; Omicron Delta Kappa; Carswell Scholar; Politics Honors Society; Honors Program in Politics Department.
• Yale Law School (J.D., 1998)
  Honors: Champion of 1995-1996 Trial Competition; 
  John Fletcher Caskey Prize for best presentation of a case
  Activities: Thomas Swann Barristers’ Union 
  Yale Journal on Regulation, Editor;
  Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Editor.

CLERKSHIPS AND TEACHING/RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

• Law Clerk, The Honorable Morris S. Arnold United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit (1998-1999)
• Intern, The Honorable Henry E. Frye, Supreme Court of North Carolina (1996)
• Research Assistant to Professor Bruce Ackerman, Yale Law School (1997-1998)
• Instructor, Trial Practice Seminar for Thomas Swann Barrister’s Union, Yale Law School (1996-1997)

REPRESENTATIVE REPORTED CASES

• Raiteri v. NHC Healthcare/Knoxville, Inc., 2003 Tenn. App. LEXIS 957 (Tenn. Ct. App., 2003) (defeated mandatory arbitration clause in nursing home admissions contract).
• Howell v. NHC/Healthcare-Fort Sanders, Inc., 109 S.W.3d 731 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2003) (defeated mandatory arbitration clause in nursing home admissions contract).
• Smith v. Town of Stalling Board of Adjustment, 581 S.E.2d 833 (N.C. Ct. App., 2003).
• Kniep v. Templeton, 649 S.E.2d 425 (N.C. Ct. App. April, 2007).

BAR ADMISSIONS

• North Carolina (1998)
• Tennessee (2003)
• United States Courts of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, Eighth Circuit
• United States District Courts (Western, Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina; Eastern District of Tennessee)

 PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

• American Association for Justice 
  Construction Defects Litigation Group 
  Nursing Home Litigation Group
• Southern Trial Lawyers Association
• North Carolina Advocates for Justice 
  Professional Negligence Section
  Nursing Home Litigation Group

LECTURES AND PUBLICATIONS

• "Surgical Intervention: Navigating the Labyrinth of Corporate Owners, Entities and Insurers in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Cases," STLA Annual Convention, January 2008 (New Orleans, LA, Speaker) 
•  "Strategies and Tactics in Opposing and Defeating Arbitration Clauses," NCATL Seminar, February 2008 (Raleigh, NC, Speaker)

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Union County Library Board, Chair, 2000-2002 (Helped oversee overhaul of County’s library system, including renovation of two existing libraries, and construction of two new libraries)

Interests: Writing, Fishing, Hiking and Baseball.
Born: Rockingham, North Carolina, October 9, 1973.