Guest Speaker
Julie Hobbs
Assistant Chief Counsel, First Citizens Bank
Julie Hobbs has 25+ years of experience in financial services as a lawyer in private practice and as an in-house counsel. Julie is Assistant Chief Counsel at First Citizens Bank, leading the Board Governance team and serving in an advisory capacity to the Board and Management. Prior to joining First Citizens in 2023, Julie was Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in the Legal and Compliance Division and served as General Counsel of Morgan Stanley Private Bank, National Association for several years and as Head of Private Banking Legal. She led a team of attorneys and paralegals advising the Private Banking business within Wealth Management. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2010, Julie held several leadership roles as in-house counsel for Wells Fargo/ Wachovia Corporation. Her experience includes advising on regulatory oversight and governance, consumer and commercial lending, mortgage origination, merger and integration, outsourcing, divestiture, and other general banking, lending, and regulatory matters.
Brian Jennings
Vice President, Associate General Counsel-Americas, CBDC APIC
Brian Jennings is Vice President, Associate General Counsel, with responsibility for legal activities in the Americas and APIC theaters. Prior to joining Hyster-Yale in 2018, Mr. Jennings was engaged in the private practice of law for two decades, primarily with Perkins Coie LLP in Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Missouri and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Ward and Smith Speakers
Drake Brinkley
Commercial Real Property Attorney
Drake serves as a trusted advisor to developers and investors in the acquisition and disposition, such as tax-deferred exchanges, leasing, planning, construction, and financing of a variety of developments, including retail, multi-family, industrial, office, and mixed-use projects. He regularly assists clients in all aspects of the land development process, including obtaining land use and zoning entitlements. Drake's civil engineering background provides practical assistance to clients throughout transactions. A substantial portion of his practice is focused on representing both landlords and tenants in commercial lease negotiations for a wide variety of spaces, including office locations, retail centers, industrial facilities, and solar farms.
Ellis Boyle
Litigation Attorney
Ellis is an accomplished litigator with a proven track record of success in handling highly complex legal disputes in courtrooms across North Carolina. His experience encompasses an impressive range of areas, including business disputes, personal injury and wrongful death claims, and other general litigation matters. With a career spanning both public service and private practice, Ellis brings a unique background to his litigation practice. Drawing on the powerful combination of experience in roles such as General Counsel and Deputy Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and Assistant U.S. Attorney, Ellis manages high-stakes legal disputes with precision and efficiency. His background as an Army officer guides his practice and sense of focus on accomplishing the mission, whatever may come up.
Whitney Campbell Christensen
Government Relations Attorney
Whitney represents clients before the North Carolina General Assembly, where for more than a decade, she has evaluated, drafted, supported, amended, and opposed legislation in accordance with client needs. Whitney has experience advocating on behalf of some of the nation's largest corporations, statewide professional associations, manufacturers, the hospitality industry, environmental service providers, financial institutions, military and education nonprofits, and local governments. She has successfully secured state budget provisions and has had legislation introduced and enacted pertaining to business liability, internet privacy and security laws, virtual currency, higher education, criminal justice, state and local pension system reforms, vehicle registration, transportation funding, special elections, alcoholic beverage laws, state procurement of information technology, local government purchasing requirements, and 911 dispatch center redundancy.
Richard Crow
Business and Tax Attorney
Richard has significant experience in a broad range of business law matters, including mergers and acquisitions, tax planning, private securities offerings, and start-up businesses. He recently served as in-house counsel for a major background screening and compliance provider, giving him the rare experience of managing both the inside and outside counsel roles for the same entity. That experience colors his practice, and Richard is now known as "an inside counsel's outside counsel."
Angela Doughty, CIPP/US
North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law
Angela is a North Carolina State Bar Board Specialist in Trademark Law and a Certified Information Privacy Professional-United States (CIPP/US) who serves as the firm's Director of Legal Innovation. She oversees several initiatives to optimize and increase the efficiency of the firm's legal services. In addition to adopting and executing practices, such as Legal Lean Sigma, Angela is responsible for moving the firm through implementing process improvement, design methodologies, and innovative technology.
Paul Fanning
North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law
Paul leads the Creditors' Rights practice and is certified by the American Board of Certification and the North Carolina State Bar as a Board Certified Specialist in Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law. His practice experience encompasses bankruptcy, collections, creditors' rights, and lender liability. He concentrates his practice in the representation of creditors in complex bankruptcy cases and state court litigation, including workouts, collection reorganizations, and contested matters.
Ken Gray
Labor and Employment Attorney
Ken leads the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group. His practice experience encompasses various areas of employment-related litigation. He advises clients and litigates cases involving all forms of employment discrimination, wrongful discharge, and breach of employment contracts from small start-up companies to Fortune 500 corporations. Ken is a frequent lecturer on employment discrimination, workplace retaliation, workers' compensation, and wage and hour law issues.
Justin Hill
Labor and Employment Attorney
Justin focuses his practice on labor and employment matters. He works with businesses, employers, and human resources professionals across the state. 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.
X. Lightfoot
Labor and Employment Attorney
X. regularly advises employers on a wide range of labor and employment law issues, including personnel policies and handbooks, employment discrimination and harassment, employee discipline and termination, drug and alcohol testing, and various wage and hour matters. He has also conducted training presentations and webinars for employers on various COVID-19 employment topics such as workforce reduction, ADA compliance, emergency paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave requirements under the FFCRA, best practices and strategies for employers to return workers to the workplace, and preparation of liability waivers.
Avery Locklear
Labor and Employment Attorney
Avery has a diverse practice that focuses on labor and employment law. She helps businesses of all sizes, as well as individual employers and human resources professionals. Avery is committed to finding practical, efficient solutions to the challenges that employers face every day.
Mayuhk Sircar, CIPP/US
Cybersecurity, Data Privacy & Technology Attorney
Mayukh is a Certified Information Privacy Professional-United States (CIPP/US) who utilizes his keen insights and practical knowledge of privacy and data security law to help clients turn cybersecurity risks into manageable business opportunities. He advises businesses in various industries on developing privacy protection practices, such as the legal requirements and risks associated with the collection, storage, transfer, use, protection, and data disposal. He also counsels clients on structuring and operationalizing privacy compliance programs, data breach response and planning, contract and vendor management, and licensing and technology transactions.
Allen Trask
General Practitioner
Allen began his career as a traditional litigator focused on business and real estate disputes. Working with North Carolina real estate developers and the community associations that they create was where Allen found his professional footing. He continues to handle a wide range of issues for these clients, including the preparation, amendment, interpretation, and enforcement of restrictive covenants and governing corporate documents, declarant control transition and disputes, fiduciary concerns, and collections. Allen's representation of community associations in disaster recovery cases gave rise to his interest in the insurance space, which he actively leverages for the Firm's clientele. His work with real estate developers goes beyond just their relationship with community associations and embraces both land use and zoning matters and commercial leasing and property management concerns.
Genesis Torres
Labor and Employment Attorney
Genesis is a labor and employment attorney devoted to assisting businesses, employers, and human resources professionals navigate the complex tapestry of employment law. She provides clients with comprehensive guidance on compliance with various local, state, and federal regulations, deploying practical and efficient methodologies to address the ongoing challenges of modern-day employment.