Press Release

N.C. Bar Association press release

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.— Long-time Womble Carlyle attorney H. Grady Barnhill, Jr. was honored by the North Carolina Bar Association Monday night with the Litigation Section Advocate’s Award, the highest honor a litigation attorney in the state can receive.

Grady Barnhill is the Dean of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice’s litigation practice and a dean of the Forsyth County and North Carolina Bars. He was raised “Down East” (eastern North Carolina), yet has worked from the western part of the state to excel in advocating for a broad range of clients faced with a multitude of legal challenges. He has been a champion of the Bench and Bar through out his forty-five plus year career and a tireless worker advocating for the profession and for the judiciary which guides and leads it.

Grady became a member of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Litigation Section at its inception and was among those lawyers who worked to establish it. He also is a Charter Member of the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

“Womble Carlyle has a national reputation in business litigation, in no small part because of Grady Barnhill,” said Managing Member Keith Vaughan.

Grady began his career trying cases in 1958. Within six months of entering the profession, he had his first jury trial. Over the ensuing years, he tried cases numbering in the hundreds. The matters in which he has advocated for his clients range from aviation, automotive, pharmaceuticals and tobacco to accounting, actuarial science, medicine and engineering to corporate and shareholder disputes including important debates about the rules governing director decision-making to commercial disputes involving finance, banking, antitrust and contract cases to intellectual property and federal regulatory matters.

Grady has demonstrated that he is equally at home in both federal and state courts and before both trial courts and appellate panels. His clients have ranged from Aetna Insurance to Wachovia to Food Lion, Brad Ragan, Vulcan Materials, B & O Railroad, RJ Reynolds and other tobacco companies, John Hancock, Sears & Roebuck, United Technologies, General Electric, Piedmont Airlines, USF&G, United States Aviation Underwriters, Associated Aviation Underwriters, the City of Winston-Salem, and numerous doctors and other professionals, just to name a few.

Educated in the law at Wake Forest University School of Law, Grady graduated first in his classand has maintained a long relationship with the school. He is a Life Member of the Board of Visitors for the Law School and a true supporter and friend of each of those Deans who led that school to prominence. Grady also served as President and on the Executive Committee for the Lawyer Alumni of Wake Forest University School of Law. Grady served on the board of Deacons at Reynolda Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem and is currently a member of First Presbyterian Church in Winston-Salem. An avid tennis player, he is a stroke survivor who fought his way back both physically and mentally to continue to serve his profession and firm. He is a member of the North Carolina Stroke Association. Married to Carolyn, he has four children, Mike, Steve, Scott and Carol. Grady served as a 1^st Lieutenant in the United States Air Force and was later promoted to Captain in the Air Force Reserve.

During his career, Grady has set the standards for the highest ethics, service to client and mostimportantly, service to the Bar—especially the judiciary and younger lawyers. His skill in the

courtroom has earned him such honors as Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers andAdvocate in the American Board of Trial Advocates as well as listings in The Best Lawyers in America and in North Carolina Business Legal Elite. In 2002, Grady was listed by BTI Consulting Group as one of two lawyers in North Carolina on the national “Client Service All Star Team”. Grady’s colleagues at Womble Carlyle have recognized his commitment to client service by naming the firm’s client service award after him. Grady was a long time lecturer on Jury Selection and Argument for the NCBA Practical Skills Course. He has presented at CLE programs sponsored by NCBA, Wake Forest University School of Law and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers and made Special Guest Speaker presentations for Georgia and Kentucky Bar Associations.

“Ask anyone that Grady trained and most any Judge before whom he appeared and they will tell you that Grady Barnhill’s standards for ‘sufficient and adequate’ work product are virtually unattainable,” said Womble Carlyle litigation attorney Rob Fields, one of the many lawyers whom Barnhill has mentored over the years.

A review of the record at the North Carolina Supreme Court in the case of Alford v. Shaw, 327 N.C. 526, 398 S.E.2d 445 (1990) illustrates Fields’ point, as Grady led the trial court day by day through a 366 day Special Committee investigation of alleged officer and director breaches of duties—all of which was memorialized by an Order spanning some 193 pages. The trial court’s findings and conclusions in that case were affirmed.

Grady’s support for the Judiciary is longstanding and continuing. Always an advocate forelection of the very best judicial candidates, Grady has worked hard to ensure that the bar supports election of those judicial candidates who are most suited for the responsibilities of the Bench regardless of party affiliation. Grady’s commitment to the Bench has been recognized. He served on the United States Magistrate Selection Committee for the Middle District which selected Judge Trevor Sharpe. He also served on the Middle District Local Rules Committee for ten years. Grady currently serves on the Commission on the Future of the Business Court appointed by Chief Justice Lake and on the Judicial Advocates Committee. More importantly, Grady advocates forcefully that all members of the Bar exhibit respect and appreciation for the service of our Judges and for increased compensation for these public servants who have sacrificed personally and financially to provide justice in our state. Grady is a Permanent Member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Grady currently focuses his passion for the law on mentoring young lawyers. He is a FoundingDirector and Master of the Bench for the Chief Justice Joseph Branch Inns of Court. Recent work with that Inns of Court includes efforts contributing to the establishment of a Mentoring Program for younger lawyers. Grady is participating actively in that program, has been assigned a young lawyer from the Forsyth County Bar to mentor, and is striving to set an example as to how that program is supposed to work. This program however is merely a formal embodiment of what Grady has done routinely for years. Lawyers young and old across this state have sought and found wise counsel in times of need from Grady Barnhill. Countless lawyers have found Grady always willing to stop whatever else he was doing to assist a fellow member of the Bar be a better lawyer, a better servant to his or her client and the judiciary, a better adversary to opposing counsel and a better steward of the trust the public places in their advocates. Grady’s concept of loyalty to client never included discourtesy to fellow counsel.

Grady’s brother, Womble Carlyle attorney Jimmy Barnhill, joined Womble Carlyle in 1968 and is now one of North Carolina’s top domestic relations attorneys. Three of Grady’s four children are lawyers. His remaining child is a forensic engineer who is not unfamiliar with the inside of a courtroom serving as an expert witness.

“Grady is always eager and delighted to meet and befriend yet one more lawyer. He seems determined not to miss the chance to know every lawyer or judge who comes within his orbit. Grady has not been drained by the law. To the contrary, he has found that unique place occupied by those whom the law invigorates, enlivens and sustains,” said Keith Clinard, leader of Womble Carlyle’s Product Liability Litigation Practice Group.