< PreviousFOCUS GROUPS Another large piece of Tunstall’s preparation is the use of focus groups that mirror the jury pool of each case. “I want to know from everyday people, what do you think?” said Tunstall. “Focus groups bring you back to what human beings are. If you are a lawyer and you’re not doing focus groups, and you’re just walking in and trying cases, you’re missing the boat.” Tunstall said he hears a common refrain from focus groups all over the state. “Their concern for other people is more based on their own experiences. I may go to trial with what a bunch of lawyers has told me is a winning legal argument, but if I argue it in front of the jury and they go, ‘who the hell cares?’ I screwed-up. I don’t have 12 lawyers sit- ting in a box; I got 12 people who work for a living, who have calluses on their hands.” “If I just think about it from my perspective, I have no idea where the pulse of the world is. I have a narrow, tiny little life. I work 55-60 hours a week then I go home to be with my family.” NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY Family time with his wife, Lisa, an executive with PNC Bank, Lilly, now 16 and five-year-old son Peyt is spent on a six-acre home near Rocky Mount. Tunstall said the place offers endless opportuni- ties for nature photography. “Peyt and I were on a golf cart driving past the creek behind our house. I slammed on the brakes, and Peyt said, ‘what’s wrong, Daddy?’ I said, hold on for two seconds.” Tunstall pulled out his iPhone and took a photo of two mallard ducks that now hangs in his office. TECHNOLOGY AND PREPARATION Joe Tunstall, like almost every other lawyer, will tell you that the key to success is preparation. For Tunstall, preparation encompasses lots of technology that he will use during a trial. THE TUNSTALL FAMILY AT CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, RIVIERA MAYA, MEXICO 2019. (L-R): JOE, LISA, LOU HYMAN, LILLY, AND PEYT JIMMIE KEEL AND TUNSTALL, CHRISTMAS 2009. KEEL PASSED AWAY IN 2010. TUNSTALL WITH WIFE, LISA ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 1 20“I’m a good old red neck boy. But the flip side is you’ve got to stay at the top end of the technology. In today’s society, if a lawyer is not staying up with the technology, then I think you’re going to find yourself completely out of the game in a few years.” “I can walk into any courtroom in North Carolina with a 50” TV, with a wireless Elmo remote, an Apple TV, a router, and my Mac- Book and be ready to go. If you don’t have some decent images and a presentation to show a jury, they’ll think you missed the boat.” The other part of the technology equation for Tunstall is case management and information management. It’s more than a lawyer just having a wealth of information going into the trial. It’s knowing where all the information is and the ability to access it. “Every deposition I do is e-mailed to me and put into a program, and I will have made notes that will take me to a specific part of the deposition. So when I’m sitting in a courtroom, and someone says something, I can cross-examine them like that [snaps a finger.] or support my own client if they say something, and I’m looking for the portions of their deposition that match up. I can click it in two seconds and throw it up on the screen.” “It’s not technology for the purpose of technology; it’s technology for the purpose of doing it better.” “YOU’VE GOT TO LIKE PEOPLE” Tunstall is invited to speak on a regular basis to young lawyers. (“I still think of myself as a 24-year-old lawyer,” sniffs Tunstall when he gets the invitations.) The advice he gives them is, “You gotta want to win for more than the fact that you will make money on the case. When I walk in the door of the court, I have to tell the story in such a way that people will understand it. So, if you don’t know people and you don’t like people, how in the hell are you go- ing to explain it to people? If you’re on the plaintiff side of the v., if you’re representing human beings all the time and you don’t like people, you’re screwed. People see right through the stuff. You’ve got to like people.” At a Glance O’MALLEY TUNSTALL, PLLC 405 North Main Street Tarboro, NC 27886 (252) 823-2266 www.omalleytunstall.com Approximately 100 Plaintiff Jury Trials to Verdict EDUCATION Juris Doctor, Wake Forest University School of Law, 2000 Bachelor of Arts in History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997 BAR ADMISSIONS North Carolina State Bar, 2000 Eastern District of North Carolina Federal Court, 2003 PRACTICE AREAS State and Federal Civil Litigation Personal Injury Automobile Wrecks Slip & Fall Medical Malpractice Workers’ Compensation Social Security Disability AWARDS North Carolina Super Lawyers, Rising Star, 2012-2013 North Carolina Super Lawyers, 2014- 2019 National Association of Distinguished Counsel, Nation’s Top 1%, 2015-2019 “Advocates” of NCAJ’s Educational Achievement Program, 2010-2011 NCAJ Order of Service, 2009-2019 REPTILE National Lawyer of the Year, 2017 MEMBERSHIPS North Carolina Advocates for Justice, Board of Governors, 2015- 2018 NCAJ Education Committee, Membership Committee, Edgecombe County Captain, 2011-2012 NCAJ Auto Torts Section, Chair, 2014-2015 NCAJ Young Lawyers Division, Vice President, 2008-2009 BILL GOODE PHOTOGRAPHY “When I walk in the door of the court, I have to tell the story in such a way that people will understand it.” AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 21As my practice has evolved, one of the areas in which I have developed an inter- est is the defective mechanisms and systems relating to automobile safety. One area of interest relates to the fail- ure of airbags to deploy and the defec- tive airbag deployment after a sudden halt in acceleration. Airbags crash sensors are designed to activate the airbag inflation system. In general, two types of failures are common: the failure of the airbag to deploy and the potentially catastrophic consequences when an airbag deploys and causes in- jury upon deployment. CRASH SENSORS AND FAILURE TO DEPLOY Various design and manufactur- ing defects have caused airbags not to deploy or explode. The airbag system depends on crash sensors so that the airbag module will know when to in- flate the airbags. Sensors detect frontal and side impacts at certain speeds and relay input to the airbags to inflate. Modern systems contain signatures that are sent to airbags and make de- cisions as to the appropriate deploy- ment rate of airbag electronic control and seatbelt deployment units. There are defects along the process, which include design deficiencies, defects of sensors, relay sensor response mecha- nisms, and the failure of the airbags to deploy. Failures of the deployment systems are commonly attributed to the manufacturer of the vehicles and are generally separate from the fail- ures of defective airbags. However, recent trends are to discover what and when the vehicle manufacturers knew of the problems and why they failed to act to correct them. FAULTY AIRBAG INFLATORS/ TAKATA LITIGATION Various design and manufacturing defects have caused airbags not to de- ploy or explode with disastrous con- sequences. The airbags are designed to inflate rapidly during a sudden de- celeration and are inflated by a mix- ture of chemicals to produce nitrogen gas and create a virtually instanta- neous reaction to inflate the bags. The primary issue in the Takata liti- gation is that the propellant chemicals are often exposed to environmental moisture, high temperatures, and age that cause abnormal chemical degra- dations and subsequent explosions. One primary source of injury occurs when the violent explosion causes the airbag metal cartridge around the in- flator to explode and extrude shrap- nel into the passengers of the vehicles. This reaction would be lessened, if not prevented, by the addition of a chemi- cal drying agent known as a desiccant. ONGOING ISSUES All vehicles have established life cycles. This cycle certainly includes the component parts. All chemicals have a half-life. Vehicles will continue to have design and manufacturing defects. Discovery in litigation may inquire into what aspects of the life cycle was known by the manufac- turers. My recurrent theme is that manufacturers rarely get into serious trouble when they have a defect and immediately correct it. Too often, fi- nancial decisions enter into the equa- tion as to when to correct - or not correct - a known defect. Much worse is the decision to cover the problem up and calculate that the cost of cor- recting the matter is less than being discovered and/or of the subsequent failure of the product. Such may be the basis of a Fraud or an Unfair or Deceptive Trade Practices Act claim. PRESERVE THE VEHICLE The most important consider- ation after any event in which there is a vehicular failure of any kind is to preserve the vehicle. This is es- sential both in the investigation of an airbag failure or any other defect which caused a collision. Modern vehicles are equipped with memory data recorders aka Black Boxes. The information and techniques available to recreate an inci- dent are surprisingly commonplace and are reviewable by any number of ex- perts. Automobile Airbags: Injuries from Faulty Deployment G. Henry Temple, Jr., J.D. was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1974. Since 1981, Temple has been engaged in civil trial practice; his clients have been awarded verdicts and settlements in excess of $100 million. Temple is licensed to practice before all N.C. state courts, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and all U.S. district courts. The Temple Law Firm also has affiliate offices in Texas and South Carolina. He is an active member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, American Academy of Trial Lawyers, ATLA Breast Implant Litigation Group, North Carolina Bar Association, NCBA Litigation Section, Wake County Bar Association. www.temple- lawfirm.com. 1-919-832-5732. G. HENRY TEMPLE | Litigation Update “Various design and manufacturing defects have caused airbags not to deploy or explode.” AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 23The North Carolina Supreme Court led by Chief Justice James Exum from 1986 to 1995 was one of the most progressive courts in North Carolina history, writes Justice Mark A. Davis in his new book, “A Warren Court of Our Own: The Exum Court and the Expansion of Individual Rights in North Carolina.” “To me it’s a Mount Rushmore of eras of the North Carolina Supreme Court,” said Davis in a January 2020 interview about the book. “This was a very progressive era of the court that decided a disproportionate number of landmark decisions that are still good law and perhaps always will be.” Exum’s tenure as chief justice—like that of former United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren— ”constituted an unprecedented era of judicial boldness,” writes Davis. “Exum presided over a supreme court that—despite the existence of stark differences between several of the justices with regard to judicial philosophy—issued numerous landmark decisions expanding the rights of criminal defendants, breathing new life into the declaration of liberties set out in the North Carolina Constitution, and significantly increasing the remedies available to individual plaintiffs in the areas of tort, employment, and workers’ compensation law.” Davis was a judge on the NC Court of Appeals until last March when he was named to the high court by Governor Roy Cooper after Justice Cheri Beasley was appointed to be chief justice. Davis, who is currently running for re-election, devotes one section of the book to the history of partisan judicial elections in North Carolina. The following section discusses the personalities and judicial philosophies of the individual justices who served on the court along with Exum. As a result, the first two-thirds of the book are very readable for lawyers and non-lawyers alike who possess an interest in North Carolina political and judicial history. The final section of the book analyzes specific cases decided by the Exum Court that will appeal especially to attorneys. What started out as a thesis for Davis’ LLM program at Duke University School of Law grew into a book. “Authoring this book was a labor of love,” said Davis, who spent two years writing it based on interviews with over 50 former judges, law clerks, and court personnel as well as numerous practicing attorneys and law professors. “To me, this court was like the 1927 Yankees that included luminaries like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. These were all judges whose names will live on and on in legal circles.” The court produced four chief justices in addition to Exum – Burley Mitchell, Henry Frye, Beverly Lake, Jr., and Sarah Parker. The Exum Court also included noted scholars such as Willis Whichard and Harry Martin. The Exum Court ended eight years after it had begun. “By 1994, Jim Exum had grown weary of the work of the supreme court—particularly in cases involving the death penalty,” writes Davis. Exum retired at the end of that year and was succeeded by Mitchell as the chief justice. Davis notes that it took a while to convince Exum how unprecedented the jurisprudence of that era of the court actually was. “He and I still debate whether the premise of my book is correct,” said Davis. “He was surprised that I viewed his court as being so jurisprudentially meaningful and as being analogous to the U.S. Supreme Court under Earl Warren. In his mind, he and the other judges were deciding each case that came before them, one at a time, without any sort of master agenda, philosophy or blueprint for moving North Carolina law a certain way. But – at least in my view – the ultimate result was NC’s version of the Warren Court.” The Exum Court Was Like The 1927 Yankees BY BOB FRIEDMAN BOOK REVIEW HARDCOVER: 248 PAGES PUBLISHER: CARO- LINA ACADEMIC PRESS; 1 EDITION (OCTOBER 21, 2019) THE BOOK CAN BE PURCHASED ON AMAZON.COM AND ON CAPLAW.COM AS WELL AS IN LOCAL BOOKSTORES. ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 1 24Seal Software BY BOB FRIEDMAN SPONSORED BY LAWYERS MUTUAL Legal Innovators MATT MILLER Large, complex business trans- actions such as M & A’s that spread over hundreds of con- tracts are likely to have conflict- ing clauses. The manual review to find these variations is costly and time con- suming. “We heard a consistent story around manual reviews of contracts and data being maintained in spread sheets. It was immediately stale the minute you harvested it,” said Matt Miller, VP, Seal Analytics and Modeling. Seal Software seeks to address the problem with AI- powered technology that helps com- panies minimize risk, and gain con- tract visibility. Miller and several business associ- ates, all of whom had been lawyers at large firms started Apogee Legal in 2015. “We stepped into that void with the idea to taking some of the software solutions out there for e-discovery and configure it around specific use cases implicating contracts.” Apogee was acquired by Seal Soft- ware in 2018. It has 25 employees in Charlotte, most of whom are attorneys PRIMARY CLIENTS “Our typical deployment is used to address several thousands of con- tracts. However, we have had clients use Seal in M&A projects that involve only several hundred contracts,” said Miller. “Our primary clients are large cor- porations, large consulting firms and legal services providers,” said Miller. “While we do have relationships with a limited number of law firms, because we focus on enterprise wide, rather than project-based deployments, those relationships focus on specific common workstreams and not indi- vidual projects.” “While our technology is deployed across a wide variety of use cases, in terms of alignment with traditional firm practices, we see adoption for M&A, Data Privacy analysis, practices involving various financial instru- ments (QFC’s/Credit Agreements) and as a tool to assist in regulatory or internal reporting requirements. We assist many corporations with OCC related reporting inquiries in the pro- curement space.” As an example of its work related to financial instruments, Seal is working with clients and partners to address Libor related inquires. Miller said the questions for a client considering a deployment include: • Is this a one-off inquiry or a repeat- able process? • Can the client leverage pre-existing models or do they have to train new models—as part of their license? Clients get access to Seal’s model library, which includes over 2,000 models that address issues impli- cating over 450 individual topics or subtopics that commonly are of in- terest to its clients? • If the client needs to train new mod- els, how many additional custom topics are required? • What is the ultimate purpose of the project—in many cases, clients want to preserve and maintain the infor- mation they extract as part of their larger business-as-usual process? “Most of our clients use Seal as a repository of record to normalize the data using the Seal Logic Engine and then generate BI reports based on the results of our inquiries. This informa- tion can reside in Seal, or we have a variety of API’s and other mechanisms to transfer the output of our analysis to other systems,” said Miller. “The software can sit on premises behind the client’s firewall, in the cli- ent’s cloud system, or in Seal’s cloud system. Most of our clients are choos- ing for Seal to host the system in the Seal cloud environment.” TRAINING AND DEPLOYMENT Seal has an analytic and modeling team of attorneys and contracting pro- fessionals who can work with clients to train and deploy the models, according to Miller. “We also have a robust partner chan- nel that includes UnitedLex, Integreon, and other legal service providers who have dedicated teams that train mod- els for client implementations,” said Miller. “Finally, as part of our imple- mentation, the Seal learning services and enablement team works with our clients to establish centers of excel- lence whereby clients develop internal capabilities to train and deploy mod- els as part of their ongoing business as usual processes.” DUKE LAW TECH LAB CONNECTION Seal has a close relationship with the Duke Law Tech Lab. “Seal Software has been supportive of our students as part of some of our curricular modules and our Legal AI Showdown,” said Duke Law Tech Lab Director Jeff Ward. “They share with us a drive to make tomorrow’s legal practice better, more efficient, and more accessible.” For more information contact info@ Seal-Software.com. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 25OUT on the TOWN RYAN SMITH, INNOVATION AND PERFORMANCE MANAGER, OFFICE OF PERFORMANCE AND INNOVATION, CITY OF DURHAM SPOKE AT A DCBA LUNCH IN JANUARY ABOUT THE DURHAM EXPUNCTION AND RESTORATION PROGRAM (DEAR). FOX ROTHSCHILD HOSTED A CLE FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE COUNSEL (ACC) IN FEBRUARY. (L-R) BRET PULS, STEPHANIE RESKICK, JAEMIN CHANG, ALLYSON JONES LABBAN, TINU DIVER, MICHELE ATCHINSON, MARK FINKLELSTEIN, BRIAN HOLLAND AND DEBORAH ROSS. LAWYERS MUTUAL HOSTED A LUNCH IN FEBRUARY FOR THE RALEIGH LEGAL MARKETING ASSOCIATION AND A PRESENTATION BY CAMILLE STELL ON LEADING CHANGE. (L-R) JULIE BEAVERS, DANIEL M. ZUREICH AND STELL DEBORAH ROSS AT ACC CLE NC BAR PRESIDENT COLON WILLOUGHBY PRESENTED THE JOHN B. MCMILLAN DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD TO NICK FOUNTAIN AT A WCBA BAR LUNCH IN FEBRUARY LAUREN ROBBINS, JUDGE AMANDA MARIS, JUDGE JOSEPHINE DAVIS, DIETER MAUCH, RYAN SMITH, JOSEPH LAIZURE, GINA REYMAN 26 ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 1JUSTICE MATTERS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LIBBY MAGEE COLES GAVE AN UPDATE TO THE WCBA IN FEBRUARY ON EFFORTS TO CURTAIL HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN NC. REP. MARCIA MOREY GAVE AN UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RAISE THE AGE LEGISLATION DURING TWO DAYS OF CLES HELD BY THE DCBA IN FEBRUARY. JUDGE FRED BATTAGLIA AND REP. MARCIA MOREY TIFFANY LESNIK AT THE WAKE WOMEN ATTORNEYS LUNCH IN JANUARY. ELIZABETH BOYETTE PROMOTED WAKE WOMEN ATTORNEYS T-SHIRTS AT THE LUNCH. The North Carolina Bar Association hosted its annual reception for law students at the Bar Center in Cary in January. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 27the firm’s Raleigh of- fice. Jones is a mem- ber with the business and commercial liti- gation practice group. McCallum worked at a Top 25 accounting and consulting firm as a Senior Manager for Credits and Account- ing Methods team, where he successfully handled Federal and State R & D tax credit projects and controver- sy matters. Powell is a Member with the Real Estate practice group. She focuses her practice on commercial real estate matters, as well as banking and finance and cor- porate law. Alice Womack has joined Triangle Di- vorce Lawyers after managing her own private practice for the previous five years, rep- resenting family law cli- ents in the Triangle and across East- ern North Carolina. Wyrick Robbins announced that Taylor Auten, Jenna Borders, Philip Hackley, Jack Magee, Clay Martin, San Parikh, Sam Slater, Cullen Staf- ford, and Alex Wilson have been elected to the partnership. David Williams has joined Rags- dale Liggett as an associate in the liti- gation practice group. His experience includes a broad range of cases includ- Charleston, South Carolina in early February. Young Moore an- nounced that attorneys Susan T. Fountain and David W. Earley have been named sharehold- ers of the firm. Foun- tain is a member of the firm’s health care prac- tice team where she represents hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers in a variety of mat- ters including medical malpractice defense and general li- ability. Earley focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, business liti- gation, insurance coverage and litiga- tion, professional liability, and prod- uct liability. Justice Mark Davis has filed with the NC Board of Elections to keep his seat as an As- sociate Justice on the NC Supreme Court. Brady Cobin Law Group announced the opening of its first satel- lite office in Wake For- est. Raleigh based firm owners Dan Brady and Andrew Cobin are board certified special- ists in estate planning and probate law. Nexsen Pruet an- nounced the addition of Kelly Jones, David McCallum and Tonya Powell to Tharrington Smith LLP an- nounced that Stephen Rawson, Me- lissa Michaud, and Colin Shive are now partners in the firm’s Education Law Section, and Jeffrey Russell is now a partner in the Family Law Sec- tion. Raleigh Divorce Lawyer Jaime Davis has just published her first book entitled, ““A Year and A Day: Di- vorce With Destruc- tion”. Davis practices with Gailor Hunt Jenkins Davis Tay- lor & Gibbs, PLLC. Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo LLP, announced the pro- motions of Michael Rothrock and Holly Stott in its Raleigh office. Both were promoted to partner. Rothrock focuses his practice on civil litigation and Stott focuses on workers’ com- pensation. The Law Offices of Wiley Nickel, PLLC announced that At- torney Lindsey D. Granados has joining the firm as a Senior Criminal Defense As- sociate. In addition to her extensive experience defending people accused of crimes, Granados has also served as an Assistant District Attorney in Wake County. Smith Debnam an- nounced the addition of veteran bankruptcy and creditors’ rights attorney Ron Jones to the firm, with plans to open an office in AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENTS PRESS RELEASES EVENTS PROMOTIONS ACTIVITES HONORS RECOGNITIONS TALK TOWN of the SUBMIT PRESS RELEASES FOR NEXT MONTH’S TALK OF THE TOWN AT WWW.ATTORNEYATLAWMAGAZINE.COM/SUBMIT-TOT/ Jaime Davis Lindsey Granados Ron Jones David Earley Susan Fountain Justice Mark Davis Andrew Cobin Dan Brady David McCallum Kelly Jones Tonya Powell Alice Womack ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 1 28ing trucking, construction, insurance, premises liabil- ity and product liability. Teague Campbell Dennis & Gor- ham, LLP announced that Jim Stanley has joined the firm’s Raleigh office in an Of Counsel capacity. Stanley’s legal experience includes serving in private practice, as in-house counsel for an in- surance company, and as a government attorney with the NC Attorney General’s Office. Dan Strong has joined the firm’s Ra- leigh office. He has experience in many areas of litigation, including securities, financial regulation, medical malprac- tice, and construction liability. Coats + Bennett, PLLC, announced that Gavin Parsons has been elected as a Member of the Firm. Parsons is a veteran litigator who represents cli- ents across numerous industries in high exposure civil litigation in state and federal courts, the North Carolina Business Court, and the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENTS PRESS RELEASES EVENTS PROMOTIONS ACTIVITES HONORS RECOGNITIONS DID YOU KNOW THERE IS NO COST TO RUN YOUR LAW FIRM’S NEWS? SUBMIT PRESS RELEASES FOR NEXT MONTH’S TALK OF THE TOWN AT RFRIEDMAN@ATTORNEYATLAWMAGAZINE.COM Awards • Announcements • Press Releases • Promotions Events • Activities • Honors • Recognitions • New Hires • Honors & Awards • Board Appointments • Association Elections • Promotions • New Office Locations • Mergers & Acquisitions • Speaking Engagements TALK TOWN of the Jim Stanley Dan Strong Gavin Parsons AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 29Next >