Guest Speakers
Albert Eckel
Co-founder and Partner
E&V Strategic Communications
With more than 25 years of communications and marketing experience across corporate reputation, brand positioning, executive visibility, and issues management—his in-depth expertise, unexpected ideas, and ingenious storytelling drives valuable impact for clients on a daily basis.
In his current role, he guides strategic communications, builds trust, and propels business value by supporting clients in addressing their most pressing needs and challenges. Albert remains a board member of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) and has served twice as the chairman of NCBCE. He has also served on numerous other boards in North Carolina. He is a recipient of the Old North State award from the Governor of North Carolina.
Pres Davenport
Partner
E&V Strategic Communications
Pres joined Eckel & Vaughan as Director of Business Development in 2012. He has spent his career at growth-oriented companies, developing a unique ability to look beyond the obvious solutions and help brands create truly innovative solutions to their marketing, communications, and public affairs challenges. Pres became a partner in 2016.
Harris Vaughan
Co-founder and Partner
E&V Strategic Communications
Harris has more than 20 years of communications experience. Intricate organization situations that require high-level effective communications strategies and hands-on client leadership are his specialty. An entrepreneur at heart, Harris has an intrinsic aptitude for understanding client goals.
Before launching Eckel & Vaughan, Harris spent eight years developing and implementing marketing and advertising plans for Rockett Burkhead & Winslow clients. Prior to that, Harris helped launch a 50-state business and policy news gathering service for The Washington Post Company. Additionally, Harris worked in public policy on Capitol Hill, an experience that sharpened his gift for building relationships and reacting in fast-paced environments.
Ward and Smith Speakers
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."
Edward J. "Trip" Coyne
Attorney
Trip has recently returned to Ward and Smith after serving as the Chief Executive Officer of an international consumer products company. He also currently serves as the Executive in Residence for UCONN's Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Trip has significant experience in complex and high-stakes litigation matters and regularly appears as lead or local counsel in courts throughout the country. He also provides general business counsel to domestic and international clients, focusing on consumer product and multi-national companies.
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
NC State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law
Ken leads the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law. 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.
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. Additionally, he 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. He 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.
Peter Ledford
North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law
Peter is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law who helps clients navigate the complexities of utilities regulation and policy. His areas of focus include electric and natural gas rate cases, resource planning dockets, and the full spectrum of regulatory challenges utilities, customers, and independent power producers face as they respond to emerging technologies and shifting energy priorities. Peter will also draw upon his extensive experience in State Government to assist clients with environmental compliance matters under the jurisdiction of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.
X. Lightfoot
NC State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law
As a member of the firm's Labor and Employment Practice Group and a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law, X. has represented clients across North Carolina in state and federal courts, addressing issues ranging from employment discrimination and harassment to employee discipline and wage and hour matters. His practice includes guiding employers on personnel policies, handbooks, and compliance with various labor laws. X. is well-versed in handling administrative proceedings before agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor (DOL), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). His expertise extends to providing legal counsel on workplace discrimination, retaliation, and wage and hour issues, making him a sought-after lecturer on these critical topics.
Emily Massey
NC State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law
Emily is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Employment Law. Her practice focuses on helping employers navigate complex employment law issues. She has become a trusted advisor to businesses and organizations in facilitating compliance in the rapidly-changing employment landscape, providing counsel at all stages of personnel matters and negotiating resolutions to employee disputes.
Gavin Parsons is an experienced attorney representing many clients—from large corporations to local businesses and individuals—in high-stakes civil litigation in state and federal courts, including the North Carolina Business Court. Known for his practical, results-driven style, Gavin employs a strategic approach and creative thinking to deliver solutions clients need in a manner they appreciate.
With a practice centered on both business and intellectual property litigation, Gavin tackles an extensive range of legal issues. He has substantial experience litigating complex commercial disputes and intellectual property matters, including trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secret claims. His work spans issues of unfair trade practices, antitrust violations, breach of contract, land use disputes, and insurance coverage conflicts on behalf of the policyholder.
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.