Justin focuses his practice on labor and employment matters. He works with businesses, employers, and human resources professionals across the state, and is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law.

Additionally, Justin is a member of the firm’s Professional Licensing group and defends licensed professionals before North Carolina’s many professional and occupational licensing boards.

Justin is also a member of the firm’s Name, Image, and Likeness Practice Group.  Many employers contract with individuals, and more recently individual collegiate athletes, to license commercial use of their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”) to the companies.  The NIL Practice Group primarily assists businesses that work with these athletes to promote products or services, in addition to assisting NIL collectives, marketing agencies, software platform providers, and financial advisors.  Justin is mindful of the changing laws and regulations regarding NIL agreements with college athletes, including issues related to the income provided by businesses to collegiate athletes and the employment status of collegiate athletes.

Before joining Ward and Smith full-time, Justin served as a summer associate in 2018, which marked a change for the firm’s program that was historically focused on second-year law school students only. He returned to the program as a 2L in 2019.

Justin received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College and earned his J.D. from Campbell University School of Law, where he graduated in the top ten of his class. While in law school, Justin was part of a team of Campbell Law School advocates that made history by winning the national title at the Hofstra Medical-Legal Mock Trial Competition in the school’s first appearance at that tournament.