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Member Firms
Ward and Smith, P.A.
North Carolina, United States
Website: www.wardandsmith.com
Email:
wsd@wardandsmith.com
Tel: 828.348.6070
Fax: 828.348.6077
Ward and Smith, P.A. is the successor to a practice founded in 1895. Our core values of client satisfaction, reliability, responsiveness, and teamwork are the standards that define who we are as a law firm. Ward and Smith ensures that your legal matters are handled with attentive intelligence by attorneys and staff who work together to build meaningful relationships with our clients. We do this by being knowledgeable in more than 30 practice areas, providing efficient results, and effectively using technology. We are your established legal network with offices located in Asheville, Greenville, New Bern, Raleigh, and Wilmington.
Ward and Smith is committed to building and maintaining relationships with every client because we understand that every client has unique needs. We work to become fully acquainted with the management style and operations of our clients. This enables us to provide timely and effective legal services. Our attorneys are dedicated to providing frequent and full communication to our clients with respect to pending and anticipated legal issues that may affect them. We advocate a proactive and preventive approach to our clients' legal issues so that, through proper planning and maintenance, our clients can avoid legal difficulties and costs. We believe that this approach provides our clients with responsive, high-quality, and cost-effective legal services.
Practice Areas:
We have extensive experience in the following practice areas:
- Administrative and Regulatory Law
- Alcoholic Beverage Law
- Appellate
- Artificial Intelligence
- Auto Accidents
- Bankruptcy Litigation
- Business Succession Planning
- Camp Lejeune Water Contamination
- Child Custody
- Closely Held Companies
- Coastal Law
- Commercial Associations
- Commercial Landlord / Tenant Representation
- Community Associations
- Copyright
- Derivatives Litigation
- Divorce
- E-Discovery
- Education Law
- Elder Law
- Election Law
- Eminent Domain
- Employee Benefits
- Employment Litigation
- Environmental
- Equine Law
- Equitable Distribution
- Estate Administration
- Estate Planning
- Family Law
- Family Law Appeals
- Fiduciary Litigation + Community Associations
- Financial Transactions + Regulation
- Fintech
- Foreclosures
- Government + Internal Investigations
- Government Relations
- In-House Counsel
- Insurance Counseling + Recovery
- Intellectual Property Litigation
- International
- Local Counsel
- Medical Malpractice
- Mergers and Acquisitions
- Name, Image, and Likeness
- Natural Disaster + Recovery
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Nursing Home Liability
- Online Liability Waiver Review
- Other Accidents, Injuries + Wrongful Deaths
- Patent
- Personal Injury + Wrongful Death
- Premises Liability
- Privacy and Data Security
- Product Liability
- Professional Licensing
- SBA Loan Liquidation
- Securities
- Spousal Support: Alimony and Post-Separation Support
- Tax
- Technology
- Trade Secrets
- Trademark
- Truck + 18-Wheeler Accidents
- Trusts + Estates Litigation
- Water-Related + Other Transportation Accidents
- Workouts + Restructuring
- Workplace Safety + Health
- Zoning + Land Use Planning
Industry Groups
In order to more efficiently serve our clients in specific industries, we fuse the wide-ranging knowledge of our attorneys into targeted industry groups:
- Agribusiness
- Charter and Private Schools
- Construction
- Dealer/Distributor + Franchising
- Defense + Government Contracting
- Economic Development
- Education + Non-Profits
- Energy + Utilities
- Financial Institutions
- Health Care
- Hemp + Cannabis Law
- Life Sciences
- Physician's Practices
- Public Housing Authorities
- Real Estate Development
- Sports, Parks, Outdoor Recreation, and Tourism
Highlighted Practices
With an economy that places a higher value on the intellectual assets of companies, and the need to address business decisions on a global level, the Intellectual Property practice stands ready to assist clients in all aspects of development and management of portfolio strategy, commercial exploitation, and the protection and enforcement of their intellectual property. Our team provides comprehensive counsel and service to help clients of all sizes meet their diverse needs for the recognition, acquisition, and safeguarding of their intellectual property, and to address domestic and international intellectual property acquisition and licensing, development and management, and dispute resolution.
Ward and Smith business attorneys are well-positioned to help clients understand whether Business Court is the best venue for a given case.
The firm’s attorneys include many regular Business Court practitioners, former Business Court clerks, lawyers who have been asked to help advise the Business Court on its rules of practice, as well as lawyers who have presented to and held leadership positions in the Antitrust and Complex Business Disputes section of the state bar. Ward and Smith has offices in several cities across the state, allowing it to staff a case with attorneys who may be closer to a particular Business Court courtroom.
Attorneys in our Real Estate Practice Group provide advice and counsel to clients on the acquisition, development, financing, leasing, and sale of real property and improvements and the various related issues. The legal services we provide include negotiating, drafting, and reviewing purchase and sale contracts for buyers and sellers; examining the real estate title records and advising our clients on how the various easements, declarations, restrictions, and other title exceptions may impact the use and value of the property and the client's plans for the property; representing buyers and sellers in real estate purchase and sale transactions and preparing the various documents associated with such transactions; preparing leases and advising landlords and tenants on lease issues; preparing development documentation, and advising clients regarding subdivision and land use matters associated with the development process; preparing and reviewing construction contracts for owners and contractors; and negotiating and reviewing loan documents for lenders and borrowers.
The Business Practice Group provides clients with a range of services from starting a business and handling daily legal concerns to dealing with complex matters such as mergers, acquisitions, and sales of businesses. The Business Practice Group encompasses the skills of a number of practice groups, including Community Associations, Construction, Dealer/Distributor and Franchising, Health Care, Housing Authorities, Intellectual Property, International, Nonprofit Organizations, Securities, Tax, and Technology to ensure that all aspects of clients' legal requirements are met.
Our attorneys offer substantial knowledge and experience in structuring business entities; negotiating, drafting, and administering contracts and agreements; developing and administering executive compensation and other benefit plans; structuring relationships within businesses involving directors, officers, fiduciaries, partners, and general managers; assisting with risk management issues, including internal and external policies, and relationships between business parties; financing and secured transactions; tax planning; and handling major structural changes such as acquisitions, mergers, reorganizations, liquidations, separations, asset purchases, and dissolutions.
Attorneys in our Litigation Practice Group represent individuals and all types and sizes of businesses, from the family-owned small businesses to the large, multi-national corporations in North Carolina and across the U.S. In the public sector we represent municipalities, housing authorities, and community colleges throughout North Carolina. We invite you to get to know our litigation team.
The breadth and depth of the Litigation Practice Group is evident from the number of practice areas in which we regularly represent clients. We have extensive experience representing plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving aviation, banking, business, condemnation, construction, contract, employee relations, environmental, equitable distribution, family law, health care, housing authority, insurance, intellectual property, maritime, medical malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death, product liability, professional liability, real estate, tax, trusts and estates, and zoning and land use litigation.
The Labor and Employment Practice Group attorneys of Ward and Smith, P.A. understand the burden these laws place on employers. We work with clients to develop, implement, and defend policies and practices related to all aspects of the employment relationship to lessen the impact of these burdens to the greatest extent possible. We are a trusted advisor and a fierce advocate for our clients.
We strive to know and understand the frequent changes in the law — before clients call for help. We take a proactive, twofold approach to help clients avoid personnel and employment law disputes resulting from unfair employment practices. Several of our attorneys focus on business and human relations practices such as preparing personnel manuals, employment contracts, compensation agreements, documents associated with workforce reductions, and settlement agreements and releases associated with other forms of termination. Other attorneys focus on employment litigation.
Ward and Smith, P.A.'s Trusts and Estates Practice Group provides estate planning, estate administration, and related services to individuals, charitable organizations, foundations, and corporate fiduciaries such as banks and trust companies. In addition to basic estate planning and administration, the Trusts and Estates Practice Group's representation of clients includes gift and estate tax planning, transition of family business planning, advice concerning the protection of family assets from exposure to future claims and liabilities (including divorce), strategies with retirement plans and IRAs, elder law planning, and many other estate planning-related areas.
Bankruptcy + Creditors' Rights
Our Bankruptcy Practice Group is comprised of attorneys practicing in all of our offices located across the state. Our goal is to seek pragmatic solutions to our clients' problems, and we provide each client with customized representation. We have the experience to assist clients in all stages of the creditor-debtor relationship and to maximize their interests in bankruptcy. In representing our clients, we can be as aggressive or conciliatory as the situation demands. Whatever the situation, we provide sound legal judgment and services to satisfy our clients' business objectives.
