Professional Licensing

When your professional reputation is at stake, you want experienced counsel to guide you through the review or investigation. Ward and Smith can help.

North Carolina requires more than 180 occupations and professions to have some type of license or permit to prove a minimum level of competency to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the public.

These occupations are normally governed by laws or administrative rules that may be difficult to understand if you are attempting to reinstate your professional license. The process may be different and seem to lack transparency, if you are the subject of an investigation or disciplinary action by an occupational licensing board or State agency. We understand that your reputation, livelihood, and client relationships are at stake in these situations, and help clients with these types of challenges every day.

Experience That Matters

At Ward and Smith, our attorneys routinely combine their practical experience, legal skills, and specific knowledge of a certain Board or agency to defend our clients against allegations of misconduct, ethics violations, and professional incompetence, including acting beyond the scope of an occupational license. Additionally, we handle occupational license cases, throughout the state, in all stages including applications to practice, investigations, disciplinary modifications, and reinstatements. The nature of our representation ranges from administrative responses that are usually handled by responding to written requests to full trials in front of public boards.

We have experience defending a wide range of professionals, such as attorneys, contractors, physicians, and nurses in administrative hearings before numerous North Carolina professional licensing boards and agencies, including:

Construction and Real Estate

Financial Services

Healthcare

Legal and Government

Transportation and Travel

Other Regulatory Bodies

When to Call

For people who have a North Carolina occupational license or professional license, an investigation or disciplinary action can have a significant influence on their standing. When facing the threat of rebuke, penalties, fines, probation, suspension, or even a lifetime ban, we strongly urge you to engage experienced legal counsel prior to responding to or appearing before your licensing board.

We are your established legal network with offices in Asheville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington, NC.

  • American Board of Trial Advocates
  • Legal Elite Business North Carolina 2021
  • Super Lawyers 2021
  • Recognized by Best Lawyers 2023
  • U.S. News Best Lawyers 2023

Subscribe to Ward and Smith