Press Release

WINSTON-SALEM--Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC today announced that Hada V. Haulsee has been selected as a Citizen Lawyer, an inaugural award given by the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA). This award recognizes North Carolina lawyers who have substantially impacted their community in a variety of ways. Haulsee, a member of Womble Carlyle's Product Liability Litigation Practice Group in its Winston-Salem office, was recognized at the association's 2007 Annual Meeting from June 21-24 at the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, NC.

The Citizen Lawyer Award was created to recognize those lawyers who have played important roles in American civic life. The role of the Citizen Lawyer is displayed in many different ways and the individuals who were recognized this year include those who: serve as elected or appointed state or local government officials, work with disadvantaged or at-risk youth, lead scouting organizations, lead or participate in youth sports programs, work with animal protection organizations, serve on community organization or charity boards, serve with local arts groups, participate in groups involved in various public policy issues, serve minority groups, raise funds for charities, support educational institutions, and perform various other undertakings in the community.

North Carolina Bar President Clark Smith created the Citizen Lawyer Task Force to select and recognize the outstanding community service of Citizen Lawyers in North Carolina. By honoring the efforts of these Citizen Lawyers, the Citizen Lawyer Task Force hopes to induce other members of the Bar to participate in the civic life of their communities and to keep the Citizen Lawyer tradition alive and well. From the nominations that they received, the North Carolina Bar staff and membership selected 25 Citizen Lawyer honorees.

Aside from her continued success as a litigator, Haulsee was largely selected due to a recent publication she wrote geared toward North Carolina's Spanish-speaking community. A native of Cuba, she has served North Carolina’s Spanish-speaking public and the attorneys who represent them by chairing and co-authoring the publication of "Critical Terms in Criminal Proceedings in Spanish and English (2006)." Published by the NCBA Foundation's CLE Department and developed by the NCBA Hispanic/Latino Lawyers Committee, the book was believed to be the first publication of its kind devoted specifically to North Carolina law.

At Womble Carlyle, Haulsee's practice focuses primarily on the defense of class actions and on multi-state product liability litigation. Haulsee has handled a wide variety of class action cases involving claims for breach of contract, lending and financial services, warranty, negligence, antitrust and unfair and deceptive trade practices.

Haulsee received her bachelor's degree from the College of William and Mary and her M.S. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She obtained her J.D. from the UNC School of Law, with high honors, where she served on the staff of the North Carolina Law Review. She currently serves as Regional President of the Hispanic National Bar Association. She is a member of the Forsyth County Bar Association, and a member of the North Carolina Bar Association's Litigation section and its Hispanic/Latino Lawyers Committee. Haulsee also serves as secretary and board member for the Winston-Salem Symphony, and on Novant Health’s Triad Region Board of Trustees. She is admitted to practice law before the North Carolina General Court of Justice, the United States Eastern, Middle and Western District Courts of North Carolina, and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

About Womble Carlyle
A full-service business law firm, Womble Carlyle is ranked among the AmLaw 100, American Lawyer magazine's annual list of the country's leading law firms, and is a top law firm for companies doing business in the South Atlantic and mid-Atlantic states. The firm is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making Womble Carlyle the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a business organization in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member educational institutions.

Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle operates in six states and the District of Columbia with about 550 attorneys in eleven offices located in Atlanta, GA; Greenville, SC; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, NC; Washington, DC; Tysons Corner, VA; Wilmington, DE; and Baltimore, MD. Womble Carlyle is located in the South Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic regions and draws its client base from across the United States.