Legal Elite 2015
LITIGATION WINNER
Jonathan D. Sasser
Ellis & Winters LLP, Raleigh
The summer after I started law school, I lived back home on my parents’ farm in Union County while clerking for a small Charlotte firm. The first week, the senior partner asked me to hand him notes for follow-up questions as he deposed a crafty liar. Trying to match wits with someone struggling to wriggle out of inconsistencies was so much fun. I could not believe people got paid to do that. One Saturday night, as I was leaving the farm to meet other first-year law students at a Selwyn Avenue bar, I spotted buzzards spiraling over the lower pasture. I went back home and changed out of my Ivey’s seersucker. From then till midnight, my brother and I took turns swinging a mattock and pitching a shovel to dig a Hereford-sized grave. I was quickly reminded that blisters are more painful than paper cuts. In August, I went back to Chapel Hill. My farming days were finally over.
Vita: 58; born in Monroe; bachelor’s and law degrees from UNC Chapel Hill; wife and one son.
Memorable case: Representing Sam and Cathy True against a rest-home chain that had contaminated their yard with sewage for years. The E. coli levels in the Trues’ well led our expert to conclude that they would have been safer drinking from their toilet. A roadside ditch surrounded their yard with a moat of feces, and their dirt basketball court became unplayable. I told the jury that the most meaningful coming-of-age rite for any boy in North Carolina is finally beating his father in one-on-one. Unlike the sons in Pat Conroy’s The Great Santini and the Spike Lee movie He Got Game, young Bryant True never got that opportunity. The jury awarded $2.5 million. A few years later, I bought a house with a concrete basketball court. My son promptly beat me at one-on-one.
Hero: My dad, who put four kids through college on a bus driver’s salary while working a subsistence farm on the weekends.
Don’t ask him to: Pick cotton, haul hay or spray a herd for pinkeye. I did one lifetime’s share more than 40 years ago.
LITIGATION
WINNER: Jonathan D. Sasser, Ellis & Winters LLP, Raleigh; D. Erik Albright, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Greensboro; Corby C. Anderson, Nexsen Pruet PLLC, Charlotte; Nigle B. Barrow Jr., Raleigh; Christopher K. Behm, Block, Crouch, Keeter, Behm & Sayed LLP, Wilmington; John T. Benjamin Jr., The Law Office of John T. Benjamin Jr. PA, Raleigh; Jonathan A. Berkelhammer, Ellis & Winters LLP, Greensboro; Walter E. Brock Jr., Young Moore and Henderson PA, Raleigh; Drew Brown, Benson, Brown & Faucher PLLC, Greensboro; A. Todd Capitano, Erwin, Bishop, Capitano & Moss PA, Charlotte; W. Thompson Comerford Jr., Comerford & Britt LLP, Winston-Salem; Edward G. “Woody” Connette, Essex Richards PA, Charlotte; Stephen Corby, Law Office of Stephen M. Corby PLLC, Charlotte; Richard A. Coughlin, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Greensboro; Auley M. Crouch III, Block, Crouch, Keeter, Behm & Sayed LLP, Wilmington; B. Joan Davis, Howard, Stallings, From & Hutson PA, Raleigh; Michael D. DeFrank, Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh; Richard Dietz, N.C. Court of Appeals, Raleigh; Alan W. Duncan, Van Laningham Duncan PLLC, Greensboro; Mary E. Euler, McGuire, Wood & Bissette PA, Asheville; Lynwood P. Evans, Ward and Smith PA, Greenville; Andrew L. Fitzgerald, Wall Esleeck Babcock LLP, Winston-Salem; Patrick H. Flanagan, Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP, Charlotte; William R. Forstner, Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Raleigh; David E. Fox, Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte; Robert W. Fuller, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte; E. D. Gaskins Jr., Everett Gaskins Hancock LLP, Raleigh; Drew Haywood, The Law Office of Drew Haywood PLLC, Durham; John P. Higgins, Additon, Higgins & Pendleton PA, Charlotte; Edward T. Hinson Jr., James McElroy & Diehl PA, Charlotte; Justin D. Howard, McGuireWoods LLP, Raleigh; Sarah Fulton Hutchins, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Charlotte; J. Christopher Jackson, Wood Jackson PLLC, Raleigh; Jason B. James, Poyner Spruill LLP, Charlotte; Shannon R. Joseph, Morningstar Law Group, Morrisville; C. Bailey King Jr., Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Charlotte; Henry L. Kitchin Jr., McGuireWoods LLP, Wilmington; Norman F. Klick Jr., Carruthers & Roth PA, Greensboro; Christopher C. Lam, Nexsen Pruet PLLC, Charlotte; Kenny Lautenschlager, Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte; E. Hardy Lewis, Blanchard, Miller, Lewis & Isley PA, Raleigh; Kurt Lindquist II, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP, Charlotte; Harrison A. Lord, Bernhardt and Strawser PA, Charlotte; Carlos E. Mahoney, Glenn, Mills, Fisher & Mahoney PA, Durham; Jean S. Martin, Rhine Martin Law Firm PC, Wilmington; Patrick M. Meacham, McGuireWoods LLP, Raleigh ; Michael T. Medford, Manning Fulton & Skinner PA, Raleigh; W. Gregory Merritt, Harris Creech Ward & Blackerby PA, New Bern; Press Millen, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP, Raleigh; Jason A. Miller, Miller & Monroe PLLC, Raleigh; Kimberly Miller, Owens & Miller PLLC, Raleigh; Amanda K. Moore, Rogers, Townsend & Thomas PC, Charlotte; John M. Moye, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, Raleigh; Kirk “Alan” Parry, Parry & Tyndall PLLC, Chapel Hill; Andy Penry, Penry Riemann PLLC, Raleigh; Jim Phillips Jr., Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Greensboro; Reid Phillips, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP, Greensboro; Stephanie Gaston Poley, Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP, Raleigh; David Redding, Tison Redding PLLC, Charlotte; Alice Carmichael Richey, Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Charlotte; James A. Roberts III, Lewis & Roberts PLLC, Raleigh; Alan M. Ruley, Bell, Davis & Pitt PA, Winston-Salem; Patricia P. Shields, Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo LLP, Raleigh; Christopher G. Smith, Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan LLP, Raleigh; Joseph H. Stallings, Howard, Stallings, From & Hutson PA, Raleigh; Matthew S. Sullivan, White & Allen PA, Kinston; Hoyt G. Tessener, Martin & Jones PLLC, Raleigh; Benjamin N. Thompson, Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh; Cynthia L. Van Horne, Poyner Spruill LLP, Charlotte; Allison O. Van Laningham, Van Laningham Duncan PLLC, Greensboro; Camden R. Webb, Williams Mullen, Raleigh; John R. Wester, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte; David C. Wright III, Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte; Courtauld Young, Poyner Spruill LLP, Charlotte.
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