Payton Collier Bullard
Estate and Complex Business Litigation Attorney
T 910.794.4833
F 910.794.4877
E pcbullard@wardandsmith.com
O Wilmington, NC
Practice Areas:
Insurance Counseling and Recovery, Intellectual Property, Intellectual Property Litigation, Litigation, Trade Secrets, Trusts and Estates Litigation
Payton Bullard is a litigation attorney whose practice focuses on trust and estate disputes and complex commercial litigation.
In her trust and estate litigation practice, she represents beneficiaries, trustees, surviving spouses, and family members in some of the most consequential and emotionally charged disputes families face, including will caveats, guardianship proceedings, elective share actions, and trust disputes involving accounting, distributions, and alleged breaches of fiduciary duties. Many of her matters involve multi-million-dollar estates, brokerage accounts, and insurance policies where the financial and personal stakes are equally high.
On the commercial side, Payton handles a wide range of complex business disputes, from trade secrets and unfair and deceptive trade practice claims to IP litigation, international arbitration, and breach-of-contract matters. She has represented clients in proceedings before the ICDR and AAA and litigated matters involving patent infringement, breaches of representations and warranties in business sales, and misappropriation of trade secrets.
Payton is licensed to practice in North Carolina and South Carolina, where she regularly litigates in both federal and state courts to guide clients through every phase of a case, from depositions and mediations through jury trials and appeals.
Before joining Ward and Smith, Payton served as an extern with the Honorable Judge John M. Tyson at the North Carolina Court of Appeals and interned with the Special and Composite Litigation Divisions at the North Carolina Department of Justice.
Honors and Distinctions
- “Rising Star,” Business Litigation, North Carolina Super Lawyers, 2024-2026
- “Legal Elite,” Business North Carolina, Young Guns, 2023-2025
Please see the following websites for an explanation of the membership standards for the following recognitions: www.bestlawyers.com; businessnc.com/special-sections/legal-elite/; and www.superlawyers.com/north-carolina.
- J.D., magna cum laude, Campbell University School of Law, 2020; Campbell Law Review, Managing Editor; American Bar Association Antitrust Law Journal, Staff Member
- B.A., University of North Carolina, 2017
- North Carolina Bar Association, Member
- Tenth Judicial District Bar and Wake County Bar Association, Member
- North Carolina, 2020
- All state courts in North Carolina
- United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of North Carolina
- South Carolina, 2021
- All state courts in South Carolina
Representative Experience
Trust and Estates Litigation
Through her trust and estate litigation practice, Payton has represented:
- Beneficiaries in will caveat actions for multi-million dollar estates.
- Petitioners and Respondents in guardianship proceedings under NCGS Chapter 35A.
- Surviving family members in beneficiary designation disputes over multi-million dollar brokerage accounts and/or insurance policies.
- Trustees and beneficiaries in trust disputes related to accounting, distributions, and breaches of fiduciary duties.
- Surviving spouses and estate beneficiaries in elective share proceedings involving multi-million dollar estates.
Complex Business Disputes
As a civil litigator, Payton has represented:
- A co-packing company in a lawsuit alleging misappropriation of trade secrets and violations of the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
- The sellers of a multi-million dollar foreign company in an arbitration before the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (“ICDR”) related to breaches of representations and warranties in the sale.
- The buyers of a fulfilled by Amazon entity in an arbitration proceeding before the AAA to recover damages for breaches of IP-related representations and warranties.
- A leading developer of technology relating to telematics and electronic logging devices used in the commercial trucking industry in a lawsuit alleging infringement of the client’s patents for electronic logging device technology.
- A point-of-sale software installation company in a breach of contract action concerning the failure of a business partner to pay.
- Manufacturers in products liability lawsuits involving catastrophic injuries.
