Celie Richardson is a member of the Business & Professional Litigation, Local Government and Risk Management practice groups.  She has worked on a wide variety of civil litigation in state and federal courts, including business and commercial litigation, health care, personal injury, employment (including school boards, Title VII and Fair Labor Standards issues, and Employment Security Commission appeals), construction, trademark, consumer, and aviation matters.  She also works with clients in resolving disputes to prevent unnecessary litigation. 

Recent matters handled by Celie include the following:

• Resolved products liability action after obtaining discovery sanctions against the claimant.
• Achieved favorable settlement for plaintiff in legal malpractice action.
• Negotiated several partnership dissolutions on terms favorable to clients.
• Brought unsatisfactory lease to a quick end based on legal authority showing that the lease was void.
• In declaratory judgment action based on suspected insurance fraud, reached settlement in favor of insurer, with policy declared void.
• Defeated challenge to disclosure of government personnel information which, if successful, would have undermined the municipal personnel statute.
• Negotiated favorable settlement in action pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act and the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act.
• Obtained reinstatement of license for daycare business after state revocation of license.
• Represented heir in contested estate in successful negotiated resolution.
• Achieved favorable settlement for majority shareholders in action by minority shareholder.

Celie is also a seasoned journalist.  Before law school, she was managing editor of the Sampson Independent in Clinton, N.C., and the Concord (N.C.) Tribune, a columnist and writer with the Cabarrus bureau of the Charlotte Observer, and a sportswriter for the Herald-Telephone in Bloomington, Indiana. 

She is also active in community life.  She has chaired several study committees on public policy issues for  the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber, and she has made presentations to the Small Business Council of the Durham Chamber.  She chaired the Cabarrus County Parks & Recreation Commission and as president of the Cabarrus Arts Council.   She is a certified lay speaker in the United Methodist Church.  She is the chair of both the finance committee and the permanent endowment committee at her church.  She is a member of the CED Performance Toastmasters Club and also holds a private pilot's license.

In service to the legal system, Celie has chaired several study committees for the Administration of Justice Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association.  She has served as vice president of the Durham-Orange Women Attorneys and as president of the Forsyth Women Attorneys.  She has taught continuing education seminars on litigation and dispute resolution. 

Before joining the firm, Celie was a sole practitioner in Winston-Salem where she worked on a variety of litigation matters.  She previously worked with a Winston-Salem firm on complex litigation, including multi-district litigation.

Faculty for

Winning Your First Civil Trial - Dec. 19 & 20, 2007 - Greensboro and Raleigh