ELLIOT SOL ABRAMS A TT ORNEY OF THE MONTH Bashyam Shah LLP UNDERS T ANDING THE S T AKES AND EMO TIONS Passion, Preparation and Teamwork Justice Mark Davis KEEPING THE SUPREME COUR T F AIR AND NONP AR TIS ANSara Boshart Senior Vice President Private Banker Sara has served the legal community for her entire career. Her deep experience, local decision-making, and the Legal Partner Program—a benefit bundle for the firm, its executives, and staff—make TowneBank the right choice for law firms. Call Sara and see for yourself! 919.534.7344 “Helping NC legal professionals succeed gives me great joy.” Member FDIC | TowneBank.com Serving Others. Firefoxabout:blank 1 of 18/2/2020, 5:32 PMKen Minniti PRESIDENT & CEO Howard LaGraffe VICE PRESIDENT Caitlin Keniston EDITOR Robert Friedman NC TRIANGLE PUBLISHER Susan Cushing Veronica Jauregui ASSISTANT EDITOR Jaqueline Dávila GRAPHIC DESIGN Alexandra Davis Joseph Hjelt Michael Kornbluth Craig Petronella CONTRIBUTING EDITORS RJon Robins CONTRIBUTING WRITER Headshots and Corporate David Moore Weddings PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE Publisher Attorney at Law Magazine is published by: Target Market Media Publications Inc. Columns authored by local attorneys and feature stories about local attorneys or law firms were solicited by this magazine and paid for but the attorney’s law firm or the attorney. Copyright ©2020, Target Market Media all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited. Advertising rates on request. Bulk third class (standard) mail. Although every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy of published materials, Attorney at Law Magazine & Target Market Media cannot be held responsible for opinions expressed or facts supplied by authors. Corporate Office : 5828 North 7th Street, Suite 200 Phoenix, AZ 85014 Phone (480) 219-9716 www.tmmpublications.com • info@tmmpublications.com TABLE OF Contents Northern Alabama | Atlanta | Chicago | Dallas | Ft. Lauderdale Jacksonville | Los Angeles | Miami | Minnesota North Carolina Triangle | Ohio | Philadelphia | Phoenix | San Antonio Salt Lake City | Middle Tennessee | Washington D.C. PUBLISHER BOB FRIEDMAN AND ELLIOT SOL ABRAMS Raleigh attorney Elliot Sol Abrams followed the grand tradition of defense attor- neys as he spun a good yarn for me tracing his background to a WWII POW camp and a Romanian Prin- cess. The heir apparent at Cheshire Parker when the venerable Joe Cheshire retires lists past clients as, “two members of the North Carolina House of Representatives; numerous multimillion-dollar corporations; a Superior Court judge; members of the United States Army Special Forc- es…” The list goes on, as you will read in our cover story. “Any kind of partisan bias or par- tisan influence has to stop at the courthouse door,” said SCONC Jus- tice Mark Davis for his profile story in this issue. Davis is running for election to the seat he was appointed to last year by Governor Roy Cooper when Cheri Beasley was named chief justice. If immigration law were an ice cream flavor, it would be Rocky Road. For the last 25 years, Raleigh immigration attorney Murali Bashy- am has been navigating that road for leading-edge companies employ- ing highly educated immigrants, as you will read in “Understanding the Stakes and Emotions.” When Seaga Gillard faced the death penalty earlier this year for a 2006, grizzly double murder in Ra- leigh, his defense team included Jon- athan Broun from the North Caro- lina Prisoner Legal Services. In this issue, you’ll read about the NCPLS’s role in that trial and in providing ac- cess to justice across North Carolina. Happy reading, Bob Friedman EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER 6 Justice Mark Davis Keeping the Supreme Court Fair and Nonpartisan 9 Retirement – Philosophically Speaking – Active Years By Patrick H. Yanke, CFP® 10 Bashyam Shah LLP Immigration Law Firm of the Month 12 Four Companies Selected for Duke Law Tech Lab 13 Veeto Legal Innovators 15 What You, Elon Musk & Bill Gates Have In Common as COVID 19 Hacks Surge By Craig Petronella 16 Elliot Sol Abrams Attorney of the Month 19 Three Steps to High-Impact Thought Leadership Content By Alexandra Davis 20 North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services Fighting Systemic Problems One Client at a Time 23 Impact of SCOTUS Ruling On Sexual Preference and Gender Identity Discrimination By Michael Kornbluth and Joseph Hjelt 24 5 Reasons Small Law Firms Go Broke By RJon Robins SPECIAL SECTIONS 26 Talk of the Town 30 Event Spotlight AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 5“As judges, we all take an oath to fairly and impartially apply the law, and that means everything to me,” said North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Mark Davis. “Any type of partisan bias or influence has to stop at the courthouse door.” Davis is currently running in the November election to keep the seat to which he was appointed by Governor Roy Cooper in March 2019. With nearly eight years of judicial experience as an appellate judge, Davis has written over 500 opinions. “I consider myself the luckiest person on earth to be able to have my dream job. I work on weekends. I work at night. And I love every minute of it.” PATH TO THE BENCH A lifelong North Carolinian, Davis was born in Jacksonville and moved to Fayetteville as a young boy. After graduating from E.E. Smith High School, he received his undergraduate and law degrees from UNC. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Frank Dupree in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. “I came away from my clerkship with a great reverence for the judicial process and the way judges go about their work,” Davis recently recalled. “I knew I wanted to be a judge, but I also knew I first needed to obtain a wealth of practical experience as a lawyer.” Davis worked as a litigation attorney at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice for 13 years, ultimately becoming a member of the firm. During that time, he litigated over 200 cases and handled over 60 appeals in the state and federal appellate courts. Based on his longstanding interest in state government, he joined the NC Department of Justice in 2006 as a Special Deputy Attorney General. Justice Mark Davis Keeping the Supreme Court Fair and Nonpartisan BY BOB FRIEDMAN Every job I have had has prepared me in some way to serve on the Supreme Court.” ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · NORTH CAROLINA TRIANGLE VOL. 8 NO. 3 6“That section handles unique lawsuits, including the defense of constitutional challenges to statutes,” Davis said. “These are the types of cases you don’t get to litigate in private practice, and in hindsight working on those complex constitutional issues was great training for my work on the Supreme Court.” After spending approximately two years as General Counsel in the Office of the Governor, Davis was appointed to the NC Court of Appeals, where he served for over six years. “I consider myself so fortunate that every job I have had has prepared me in some way to serve on the Supreme Court,” Davis recently observed. “And there is no better way to prepare for this job than to have served on the Court of Appeals. Judging at any level is difficult and it is even harder on the Supreme Court. Given the importance and the complexity of the cases on our docket, prior experience as an appellate judge is simply invaluable.” FAMILY, FAITH, BOOKS, AND THE GODFATHER Being the first Jewish justice of the NC Supreme Court in its 200- year history is a source of pride for Davis. “Obviously, just because I belong to a particular religion doesn’t mean that I’m going to decide a case on anything other than the facts and the law, but I am very proud to be the first Jewish member of the Court,” he said. “My faith is very important to me, and it is a great honor to be the first one.” Davis and his wife Marcia, a former classroom teacher, have been married for 28 years and have three children, ranging in ages from 13 to 22. “We enjoy spending time together. We are a family of readers. We also love sports, music, and movies.” When pressed, Davis names “The Godfather” as his favorite movie. “It’s one of the most well-made and entertaining movies of the last 50 years,” said Davis. “The movie shows an entirely different system of ‘justice.’ It’s not something we’d ever want to emulate, but it makes for a great cinematic experience,” he lauged. After receiving a Master of Laws degree from Duke Law School in 2018, Davis published a book on the NC Supreme Court titled A Warren Court of Our Own. “It was a labor of love for me to interview and write about so many legendary former members of our Court— including my greatest mentor, former Chief Justice Burley Mitchell,” Davis said. ACCESS TO JUSTICE As a lawyer, Davis did pro bono work for the Wake County Volunteer Lawyers Program and cites lack of access to justice as a major problem in our legal system. “That’s something I really worry about,” Davis said. “The law has become so specialized and complex that it’s virtually impossible for anyone to represent themselves and adequately protect their rights. At the same time, legal fees have increased substantially over the past 20 years. I am concerned about the ability of people with limited means to obtain competent legal representation.” In talking about the judicial system, Davis often returns to the importance of nonpartisan and impartial courts. “When you walk into the courtroom, you should be confident that the judge is not going to rule against you because of what you look like, what your political beliefs are, or how much money you have,” said Davis. “You should know that you are going to be treated fairly and with respect and that the law is going to be applied evenhandedly in your case. That is how the judicial system should work and as long as I am fortunate enough to be in this position that is how I will approach my job.” Paid for by Justice Mark Davis Committee PO Box 807 Raleigh, NC 27602 You can learn more about Justice Davis at JusticeMarkDavis.com DAVIS WITH HIS WIFE, MARCIA DAVIS WITH HIS SON, TED DAVIS WITH HIS DAUGHTER, LEA AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 7We don’t tend to see retire- ment as one of the pri- mary inevitabilities of life—it isn’t as sure as death and taxes. However, if we live long enough, there will come a time when we either no longer desire or are no longer able to engage in our business or recreational pursuits. When that time comes, we will need the money we worked hard to save to work hard in preserving our standard of living. If there are three main phases in life, retirement is unique among them. The early phase could be called the “learning” period constituted with education and preparation. The next phase may be called the “earning” pe- riod where we apply ourselves in our chosen professions. When that phase is done, we tend to think of the final stage as retirement. The difference between this final stage and the ones before is that there isn’t a following stage… retirement is an end of life period. Within retirement, there more phases to consider: Active, Slowing, and Convalescent periods. I’m going to deal with each of them in succes- sive columns. Let’s look at the first one here. The Active Period. This is the time of retirement most of us dream about. We see the rounds of golf, sail- ing, travel, and playing with grand- children. We are done with business obligations and able to focus on per- sonal goals, though we may work as a choice or for additional benefits. We are generally young enough to participate in our favorite activities and travel is a pleasure. How long we can expect to remain active depends largely on family history, lifestyle and overall health. One of the challenges of this pe- riod is balancing the “here and now” against the future. Our investments have a long time-horizon as this stage begins with a lot of life left to live. We have important decisions to make, though, that will have a lasting im- pact on the rest of retirement… when should we start taking Social Security income? If we have a pension, do we go with the single-life option or en- sure income continues for the life of both spouses? Do we focus our re- tirement assets in income-producing securities or keep some growing for future needs? These are personal de- cisions as unique as individuals. Outliving retirement assets is a great tragedy. When we focus too much on enjoying the active phase of retirement, we run the risk of de- pendency later. Remaining indepen- dent requires a critical and honest approach to income that addresses anticipated needs from beginning to end for all involved. Since retirement is an end of life phase, estate planning is essential. If we have the assets we need to live life on our own terms, we should have a plan for the disbursement of those assets at our passing. Dying without these preparations doesn’t mean there isn’t a plan for disbursement—it just isn’t our plan. Those we might want to benefit may be disinherited by the laws of intestate. Married couples have more on their minds. One of them is likely to precede the other in death. Will the surviving spouse be able to continue in the same standard of living? They should look at their sources of income to see what happens to that income at the passing of each of them. For ex- ample, while they live, they may be entitled to Social Security income. A non-working spouse may receive as much as half of the earning spouse’s amount. At the death of either one of them, the lower amount goes away and only the higher amount remains. When making choices on retirement income (pensions, timing of Social Security, annuity income, et al), en- sure the needs of both spouses are met for their lifetimes. Consider life insurance to account for anticipated shortfalls. Along with concerns about income are the issues of control. This is where the other areas of estate planning be- come important. We should carefully choose attorneys-in-fact and succes- sor trustees to help manage our as- sets and our lives when we become unable to do it ourselves. Many will want to have a family member as- sume these roles but not all will know people up to the challenge. However, many successors are chosen, I recom- mend most people consider a corpo- rate entity as a final successor to make certain someone of their choosing is managing their affairs. We may have a picture of retire- ment in our minds that seems carefree and relaxing. The reality is that we will only realize it when we have prepared for the eventuali- ties of life. Having a sound plan is the path to peace of mind and a com- fortable retirement. PATRICK H. YANKE, CFP® | Financial Patrick Yanke is a Raleigh-based financial advisor. Opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily those of RJFS. The information is not a complete summary or statement of all data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Long- term Investing does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss. www.yankefinancial.com. Retirement – Philosophically Speaking – Active Years AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 9Next >