A legal industry accolade that comes out each year is the Super Lawyers list, which is a publication of Thomson Reuters. Super Lawyers is a rating service of lawyers across the nation. Peer nominations and evaluations along with third-party research are used to review candidates.

Norwood P. Blanchard III
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Crossley McIntosh Collier Hanley & Edes
Title: Partner
Age: 45
Education: East Carolina University (B.S.B.A.); Duke University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Blanchard has argued numerous appellate cases at the N.C. Supreme Court, N.C. Court of Appeals and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. 
Areas of focus: Employment, general civil and municipal

Daniel Lee Brawley
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Williams Mullen
Title: Partner
Age: 70
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (A.B. and J.D.)
Career highlights: Brawley was a visiting professor at the law school at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. “The opportunity to work with law students and professors in a post-Soviet Union environment was educational and rewarding and confirmed my abiding appreciation of the American judicial system,” Brawley said.
Areas of focus: Litigation, construction and admiralty

Algernon L. Butler III (See Legal Elite profile), Butler & Butler

Clay Allen Collier
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Crossley McIntosh Collier Hanley & Edes
Title: Partner
Age: 53
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.A.); Campbell University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Collier served as lead counsel for trials to jury verdict, federal and state courts, in about 15 counties throughout the Carolinas. Collier has represented clients before N.C. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court and before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He is the former director and officer of the N.C. Association of Defense Attorneys.
Areas of focus: Civil, defense of claims against municipalities and various professionals

Auley M. Crouch III
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Block, Crouch, Keeter, Behm & Sayed
Title: Partner
Age: 68
Education: Citadel (B.S.); John Marshall Law School (J.D.)
Career highlights: Crouch has been a Superior Court mediator and arbitrator since 1993. His representative reported cases include: Sevigny v. Dicksey; Marina Food Associates Inc. v. Marina Restaurant Inc.; and Williams v. Houses of Distinction Inc.
Areas of focus: General civil, including commercial/business disputes, construction litigation, personal injury and condemnation in federal and state courts

G. Stephen Diab
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Murchison, Taylor & Gibson
Title: Partner
Age: Did not provide
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.S. and J.D.)
Career highlights: Diab was included in Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite 2003 to 2012. He is a certified public accountant and member of the N.C. Association of Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Diab has served on the boards of directors for the UNCW Endowment, Hill School of Wilmington Inc. and The Eshelman Foundation. He chaired the UNCW Foundation from 2003 to 2005.
Areas of focus: Trusts and estates, estate administration, mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and business and tax planning

Kathleen Shannon Glancy
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Kathleen Shannon Glancy         
Title: Founding attorney
Age: 57
Education: University of California, Irvine (B.A.); Santa Clara University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Glancy served five years as staff and managing attorney at Legal Services in Fremont, Ohio and in Wilmington. In 1985, she founded her own law firm. She is an active leader in the N.C. Advocates for Justice’s Workers’ Compensation Section and Workplace Injury Litigation Group as well as the Labor and Employment Section of the ABA where she currently serves as LEL Workers’ Compensation Committee, employee co-chair.
Areas of focus: Board certified workers’ compensation specialist, social security disability

H. Mark Hamlet (See Legal Elite profile), Hamlet & Associates

Henry L. Kitchin Jr. (See Legal Elite profile), McGuireWoods

Paula A. Kohut, Kohut PLLC

Gilbert “Gib” Laite III (See Legal Elite profile), Williams Mullen

James W. Lea III
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: The Lea/Schultz Law Firm
Title: Did not provide
Age: 58
Education: UNC Chapel Hill; Campbell Law School (J.D.)
Career highlights: Lea has practiced in family law for the past 32 years. He serves on the N.C. State Bar’s Family Council, a selected group of family lawyers that sets policy and recommends changes to family law on behalf of the N.C. State Bar. His firm was recently listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Law Firms in family law, tier one.
Area of focus: Family law

Michael Lee (See Legal Elite profile), Lee Law Firm

Erica B. Lewis
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo
Title: Managing partner
Age: 43
Education: University of California, Davis (B.S.); Wake Forest University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Lewis started up the Wilmington office of Hedrick Gardner, where she now serves as managing partner of the office. Under her leadership, it continues to grow through the development of practice groups. Lewis regularly represents businesses and employers in civil cases and before the N.C. Industrial Commission.
Areas of focus: Practice focuses on appellate advocacy, employment law and workers’ compensation

Jean Sutton Martin (See Legal Elite profile), Rhine Law Firm

John D. Martin
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Cranfill, Sumner & Hartzog
Title: Managing partner, Wilmington office
Age: 54
Education: Wake Forest University (B.A.); Campbell University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Martin has successfully tried numerous medical malpractice and personal injury cases throughout North Carolina. Many of his cases involve brain injury, birth trauma, paraplegia and wrongful death. Martin also has experience with large construction litigation, premises liability and hospital/workplace security. He has appeared before the U. S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, the U. S. Supreme Court and the N.C. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
Areas of focus: Medical malpractice, personal injury and construction 

William A. Raney Jr.
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Wessell and Raney
Title: Partner   
Age: 66
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.A. and J.D.)
Career highlights: Raney started the Environmental Protection Section of the N.C. Attorney General’s Office in 1973. He became chief of the Environmental Protection Section 1976. Raney also is the former chairman of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Law Section of the N.C. Bar Association as well as former president of the New Hanover County Bar Association.
Area of focus: Environmental law

Gary K. Shipman
Category: Super Lawyer
Firm: Shipman & Wright
Title: Partner
Age: 56
Education: UNCW (B.A.); Campbell University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Shipman has been practicing since 1980. He has handled more than 100 jury trials to verdict during his career.
Area of focus: Complex civil

Ryal W. Tayloe
Category: Super Lawyers
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Age: 55
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (A.B.); Wake Forest University (J.D.)
Career highlights: “Highs and lows occur every day in the wide world of litigation and dispute resolution. A typical highlight for me is leading a client to a resolution that makes the most sense, whether it be an early settlement or courtroom trial,” Tayloe said.
Areas of focus: Commercial, real estate and construction

SUPER LAWYERS-RISING STARS
A number of local attorneys also were named to Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars list this year. To be eligible for the Rising Stars category, candidates have to be either 40 or younger or in practice for 10 years or less.

John H. Anderson Jr.
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: McGuireWoods
Title: Partner
Age: 37
Education: N.C. State (B.S.); UNC Chapel Hill (J.D.)
Career highlights: Anderson is a first-chair trial lawyer who represents individuals and businesses in a range of commercial litigation matters. He is experienced in handling complex civil litigation, business torts, contract disputes, financial services litigation, real estate disputes, products liability and construction litigation. His practice focuses heavily on representing and advising major lending institutions on issues involving mortgage litigation and commercial lending. Anderson holds an AV-Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Areas of focus: Business, financial services and general commercial

Christopher K. Behm (see Legal Elite profile)

Matt Buckmiller
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Shipman & Wright
Title: Partner
Age: 32
Education: Columbia University (B.A.); Temple University (J.D. and MBA)
Career highlights: Buckmiller has been included in Super Lawyers Rising Stars for the past four years. He was recently selected to the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 under 40. His practice is devoted to civil litigation, and he recently obtained a jury verdict against a bank for violation of the ECOA, the first such verdict in North Carolina, which discharged his client from a $4 million loan obligation.
Area of focus: Complex commercial

Erin Collins
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Hedrick, Gardner, Kincheloe & Garofalo
Title: Associate
Age: 33
Education: N.C. State (B.A.); Campbell University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Collins is chairwoman of the N.C. Association of Defense Attorneys (NCADA) Young Lawyers Group and an active member of the N.C. State Bar, Defense Research Institute and National Alliance of Medicare Set-Aside Professionals. She presents on Medicare compliance topics and co-authored a Medicare compliance article published by the NCADA in The Defender.
Areas of focus: Civil litigation, workers’ compensation and Medicare compliance

Trip Coyne
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Williams Mullen
Title: Attorney
Age: 33
Education: Wake Forest University (J.D.)
Career highlights:  Coyne served for two terms as law clerk to the N.C. Business Court.
Area of focus: Litigation

David A. Creech
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: David Creech
Law Firm
Title: Attorney at law, owner/managing partner
Age: 31
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.A.); University of Miami (J.D.)
Career highlights:  Creech is a member the New Hanover County Bar Association, N.C. Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He is also an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The National Trial Lawyers recently selected him as one of the top 40 attorneys under 40 for 2013. Creech also volunteers at the local Centro Latino where he conducts free legal clinics and consultations for indigent people.
Areas of focus: Immigration and criminal defense

Samuel B. Franck
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Age: 37
Education: Virginia Tech (B.S.); College of William and Mary (J.D.)
Career highlights: “The highlights of my career are those problems that could be successfully resolved with creativity, practical logic and diligence,” Franck said. “Some examples include the development of creative and complex condominiums, restoration of the legal components of failed developments, facilitating cooperative solutions for planned community associations and completion of sophisticated multiple party transactions.”
Areas of focus: Board certified specialist in real property law, condominium and planned community development and condominium/community association

Justin Humphries
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Crossley McIntosh Collier Hanley & Edes
Title: Attorney
Age: 31
Education: Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law (J.D.)
Career highlights: Humphries has had five published opinions with favorable results and was also admitted to the S.C. Bar in 2008.
Area of focus: Civil

Melody J. Jolly
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Cranfill, Sumner
& Hartzog
Title: Associate attorney
Age: 33
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.A. and J.D.)
Career highlights: Jolly has successfully litigated cases at the trial court level as well as before the N.C. Court of Appeals and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, including acting as lead counsel and obtaining dismissal as a matter of law in a purported class action lawsuit against a multi-state law firm seeking more than $11 million in damages. She is an active participant in the Defense Research Institute, specifically the professional liability committee.
Areas of focus: Professional liability defense, construction

Helen L. Jugovic
Category:Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: The Law Offices of Helen Jugovic
Title: Attorney
Age: 34
Education: Lake Forest College; Wake Forest University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Jugovic is one of two N.C. board-certified immigration specialists in Wilmington. She won awards for mentoring, and has led the field in obtaining humanitarian visas for victims of domestic violence and other crimes, as well as for juveniles who have been abused, abandoned or neglected. She was voted a Top Young Attorney in North Carolina Rising Stars in 2012.
Areas of focus: N.C. Board Certified Immigration Law Specialist

Christopher J. Leonard, Super Lawyers-Rising Stars

Stephen S. Logue Jr.
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: McGuireWoods
Title: Attorney
Age: 34
Education: N.C. State (B.S.); UNC Chapel Hill (J.D.); New York University (LLM, Taxation)
Career highlights: Logue has represented a number of national lenders in connection with construction and permanent financing totaling about $1 billion in lending transactions in the past few years. He has represented regional lender regarding real estate matters related to the foreclosure of numerous residential subdivisions and commercial properties in southeastern North Carolina. Logue also has represented regional lender in the disposition of foreclosed properties, including large residential subdivisions, commercial properties and future development tracts.
Area of focus: Distressed real estate

James W. McGee Jr. (see Legal Elite profile)

William A. Oden III
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Age: 34
Education: UNC Chapel Hill (B.A.); Campbell University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Oden practices employment, workers’ compensation and occupational safety and health law ensures. He has been president of the Lower Cape Fear HR Association and is currently president of the New Hanover County Bar Association. At the state level, Oden serves on NCSHRM’s Leadership Council.  
Areas of focus: Labor and employment, employment discrimination and harassment, employment litigation, occupational safety and health and workers’ compensation

Jill Raspet
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars   
Firm: Smith Moore Leatherwood
Title: Partner
Age: 34
Education: UNCW (B.S.); Wake Forest University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Raspet is a member of her trusts and estates team in Smith Moore Leatherwood’s Wilmington office. She assists clients in drafting and executing comprehensive estate plans, with specific emphasis on estate tax, gift tax and charitable gift planning.
Areas of focus: Board certified specialist in estate planning and probate law

James F. Rutherford
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Mason & Rutherford
Title: Partner
Age: 35
Education: UNCW (B.S.); Michigan State University (J.D.)
Career highlights: Rutherford practices law in state and federal courts. He said that being certified by the N.C. State Bar as a specialist in criminal law as well as being named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers have been his greatest professional honors so far.
Area of focus: Certified specialist in criminal law

Faison G. Sutton
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Murchison, Taylor & Gibson
Title: Member (partner)
Age: 34
Education: Duke University (B.A.); UNC Chapel Hill School (J.D.)
Career highlights: Sutton advises real estate developers in the acquisition, development, subdivision, zoning, leasing and sale of real property and assists with the formation and management of residential planned communities, commercial and residential condominiums, timeshare and fractional interest projects, shopping center facilities, office complexes and mixed-use developments. 
Areas of focus: Commercial real estate and development

Benton Toups
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog
Title: Partner
Age: 38
Education: Louisiana State University (J.D.)
career highlights: “Without a doubt the most memorable day of my career was the day of my first trial. There was a whopping $1000 at issue, but I prepared more for that day than I had ever prepared for anything in my life,” said Toups, who won that case.
Areas of focus: Employment, business disputes and mediation

Regan Summerlin Toups, Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog, Super Lawyers-Rising Stars

Kasey Wagner
Category: Super Lawyers-Rising Stars
Firm: The Law Offices of Richard Flexner
Title: Partner
Age: 33
Education: Wake Forest University (B.A. and J.D.)
Career highlights: Wagner represents injured individuals in a variety of cases including nursing home abuse, automobile accidents, premises liability incidents, trucking accidents and wrongful death. Previously, she spent five years litigating injury cases for insurance companies.
Area of focus: Plaintiffs’ personal injury

For the local 2013 Legal Elite list, click here.