Hundreds of lawyers made Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite list this year. The group included Wilmington-area lawyers.
To compile the annual list, the publication Business North Carolina (businessnc.com) asks the thousands of active N.C. State Bar members to vote for recommendations of top lawyers in various areas. Lawyers were not able to vote for themselves. They were allowed to vote for members from their own firms only by voting for another out-of-firm lawyer in the same category. The vote for the out-of-firm lawyer was weighted more heavily.
The top vote-getter in each category is added to the Legal Elite Hall of Fame and is ineligible to win again (Hall of Fame members also are noted below with the firm they practiced with at the time they were named to the Hall of Fame).
Here are the local attorneys who made the 2025 list.
Henry “Hal” L. Kitchin Jr.
Category: Legal Elite - Antitrust
Firm: McGuire Woods
Title: Partner (2019 Hall of Fame)
Alexander C. Dale
Category: Appellate
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Christopher S. Edwards
Category: Appellate
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Algernon L. Butler III
Category: Bankruptcy
Firm: Butler & Butler
Title: Partner
Adam Matthew Beaudoin
Category: Business
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Richard John Crow
Category: Business
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Jeffrey P. Keeter
Category: Business
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Partner
J. Dickson McLean
Category: Business
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Attorney
Charles S. Baldwin IV
Category: Business
Firm: Brooks, Pierce, McLendon Humphrey & Leonard
Title: Partner (2015 Hall of Fame)
Stephen Diab
Category: Business
Firm: Murchison, Taylor & Gibson
Title: Attorney (2021 Hall of Fame)
Christopher K. Behm
Category: Construction
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Partner
H. Mark Hamlet
Category: Construction
Firm: Hamlet & Associates
Title: Founding partner
Jessica Soles Humphries
Category: Construction
Firm: Hamlet & Associates
Title: Attorney
Wesley S. Jones
Category: Construction
Firm: The Law Office of Wesley Scott Jones
Title: Founder
Rebecca Ann Knudson
Category: Construction
Firm: Cranfill Sumner
Title: Attorney
Nicole B. Slaughter
Category: Construction
Firm: Hamlet Law
Title: Attorney
B. Judd Hartman
Category: Corporate Counsel
Firm: Pharmaceutical Product Development
Title: Attorney (2009 Hall of Fame)
Patrick Mincey
Category: Criminal
Firm: Cranfill Sumner
Title: Attorney
Emily Jones Queen
Category: Criminal
Firm: Burney & Jones
Title: Attorney
James F. Rutherford
Category: Criminal
Firm: James Rutherford Attorney at Law
Title: Founder
Cristopher L. Oring
Category: Criminal
Firm: Oring Law
Title: Attorney (2021 Hall of Fame)
William Oden
Category: Employment
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney (Category winner 2025)
Benton Toups
Category: Employment
Firm: Cranfill Sumner
Title: Partner
Andrew K. McVey
Category: Employment
Firm: Murchison Taylor & Gibson
Title: Partner
Mary Charles Amerson
Category: Family
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
James A. “Al” Clyburn
Category: Family
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Brittany Capps Hall
Category: Family
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Partner
James W. Lea III
Category: Family
Firm: Lea/Schultz Law Firm
Title: Founder
Linda B. Sayed
Category: Family
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Partner
Ryan Binderup Schultz
Category: Family
Firm: Lea/Schultz Law Firm
Title: Partner
Vanessa Ann Gonzalez
Category: Immigration
Firm: Law Office of Vanessa A. Gonzalez
Title: President
Helen Laura Tarokic
Category: Immigration
Firm: Helen Tarokic Law
Title: Managing attorney
William J. Mason
Category: Intellectual
Firm: MacCord Mason
Title: Attorney (2011 Hall of Fame)
Melody Jolly
Category: Litigation
Firm: Cranfill Sumner
Title: Partner
Jeffery Stoddard
Category: Litigation
Firm: McAngus Goudelock & Courie
Title: Attorney
Allen Nelson Trask III
Category: Litigation
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Daniel L. Brawley
Category: Litigation
Firm: Williams Mullen
Title: Attorney (2012 Hall of Fame)
Jean Sutton Martin
Category: Litigation
Firm: Morgan & Morgan
Title: Attorney (2016 Hall of Fame)
Nathaniel H. Cook
Category: Real Estate
Firm: Block Crouch Keeter Behm & Sayed
Title: Attorney
Don T. Evans Jr.
Category: Real Estate
Firm: Clark Newton Evans
Title: Managing partner
Samuel B. Franck
Category: Real Estate
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Attorney
Scott Morgan Holmes
Category: Real Estate
Firm: Murchison Taylor Gibson
Title: Partner
Justin K. Humphries
Category: Real Estate
Firm: The Humphries Law Firm
Title: Managing partner
Abby Lund Adams
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: Kohut Adams
Title: Shareholder
David Eric Anderson
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: David E. Anderson
Title: Attorney
Kara Gansmann
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: Cranfill Sumner
Title: Attorney
Jill Peters Kaess
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: Lee Kaess
Title: Partner
Paula Alyse Kohut
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: Kohut Adams & Randall
Title: Of counsel
Jennifer Marshall Roden
Category: Tax and Estate Planning
Firm: Craige & Fox
Title: Partner
Avery Locklear
Category: Young Guns
Firm: Ward and Smith
Title: Labor and employment attorney
Click here to view the 2025 SUPER LAWYERS list.
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