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Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Legal Elite – Business 2015

Legal Elite 2015
BUSINESS WINNER

Charles S. Baldwin IV
Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Wilmington

Family friends and classmates of different nationalities and occupations interested me in international business and cultures. Those experiences, plus a desire to help people, led to law and an international transactional and business practice. Some of the best advice I received was from Jack Stevenson, a family friend and former partner at New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell. Jack offered to speak with me, and we sat on the porch of his mountain cottage, “No Deer.” (His wife was an avid gardener.) He told me that if I wanted to practice international business law, I should forget about international business law. Instead, he said I should study as hard as I could and focus on bedrock legal principles: contracts, torts, real property, equity, litigation. Then I should join the best law practice I could. When an international business issue arose, I should let it be known that I was interested and offer to work on it.

Vita: 46; born in Winston-Salem; bachelor’s from UNC Chapel Hill, master’s from Georgetown University and master’s and law degrees from American University; wife and two children.

Memorable case: A project to establish a new maritime port terminal. It involved working through the business and legal issues with national and international companies and seeing the project move from paper to implementation. Seeing the ships, cranes, conveyors, trucks and trains moving cargo was most rewarding. Kudos to my childhood time with Lionel trains.

Passions: Reading, writing, playing guitar and running.

Hero: Henry Frye, North Carolina’s first African-American chief justice. A great person, author and poet. Loves people, regardless of time or circumstance.

Don’t ask him to: Fix a computer problem.

BUSINESS

WINNER: Charles S. Baldwin IV, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Wilmington; Michael R. Abel, Schell Bray PLLC, Greensboro; Michael G. Adams, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Charlotte; Beth Ferebee Atkins, Howard, Stallings, From & Hutson PA, New Bern; Evan Kent Auberry, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Greensboro; John Babcock, Wall Esleeck Babcock LLP, Winston-Salem; Jonathan A. Berkelhammer, Ellis & Winters LLP, Greensboro; Marc Bishop, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Greensboro; Galen Boerema, Schneider Boerema PLLC, Raleigh; Martin H. Brinkley, Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan LLP, Raleigh; Patrick S. Bryant, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte; Kenneth G. Carroll, Morningstar Law Group, Morrisville; James H. Clarke, Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Morrisville; Matthew A. “Matt” Cordell, Ward and Smith PA, New Bern; D. Scott Coward, K&L Gates LLP, Raleigh; John Cross Jr., Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Greensboro; Fred B. Davenport Jr., Murchison, Taylor & Gibson PLLC, Wilmington; G. Stephen Diab, Murchison, Taylor & Gibson PLLC, Wilmington; T. Greg Doucette, The Law Offices of T. Greg Doucette PLLC, Durham; James R. Forrest, Forrest Firm PC, Durham; Kerry A. Friedman, Patla, Straus, Robinson & Moore PA, Asheville; Robert E. Futrell Jr., Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh; Gregory H. Gach, Gach Law Firm PLLC, Charlotte; James B. Gatehouse, Rayburn Cooper & Durham PA, Charlotte; Kenneth M. Greene, Carruthers & Roth PA, Greensboro; William B. Gwyn Jr., Manning Fulton & Skinner PA, Raleigh; Jeffrey C. Hart, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Chapel Hill; Jimmie B. Hicks Jr., Sumrell, Sugg, Carmichael, Hicks & Hart PA, New Bern; Daniel E. Hitchcock, Adams Hendon Carson Crow & Saenger PA, Asheville; Steven A. Hockfield, Erdman and Hockfield LLP, Charlotte; Gregory D. Hutchins, Roberts & Stevens PA, Asheville; Philip R. Isley, Blanchard, Miller, Lewis & Isley PA, Raleigh; Cyrus Johnson Jr., Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP, Charlotte; Gene Jones, Morningstar Law Group, Morrisville; G. William Joyner III, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Winston-Salem; Jeffrey P. Keeter, Block, Crouch, Keeter, Behm & Sayed LLP, Wilmington; Robert D. Kidwell, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Greensboro; Stephen F. Later, Robbins May & Rich LLP, Southern Pines; David K. Liggett, Ragsdale Liggett PLLC, Raleigh; E. Lynwood Mallard, McGuireWoods LLP, Charlotte; Henry B. Mangum Jr., Hagan Davis Mangum Barrett & Langley PLLC, Greensboro; Carolyn P. Meade, Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte; Daniel Merlin, Alexander Ricks PLLC, Charlotte; Douglas L. Miller, Cogentrix Energy Power Management LLC, Charlotte; John Morrice, Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte; Stephen H. Morris, Essex Richards PA, Charlotte; Edward P. O’Keefe, Bank of America Corp., Charlotte; William G. Pappas, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Raleigh; Lonnie M. Player Jr., The Law Offices of Lonnie M. Player Jr. PLLC, Fayetteville; Larry E. Robbins, Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh; Caroline Wannamaker Sink, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte; J. Troy Smith Jr., Ward and Smith PA, New Bern; Joseph H. Stallings, Howard, Stallings, From & Hutson PA, Raleigh; Thomas M. Ward, Harris Creech Ward & Blackerby PA, New Bern; Thomas C. Watkins, Schell Bray PLLC, Greensboro; Michael Weisel, Bailey & Dixon LLP, Raleigh; Michael G. Winters, Ellis & Winters LLP, Raleigh; Robert B. Womble, K&L Gates LLP, Raleigh; James R. Wyche, Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte.

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