Articles Tagged with Gaston County NC Lawyers

June 25, 2025

I have grey hair for a reason

They didn’t show up all at once. A little around the temples after a run of back-to-back felony trials. A little more after a long, sleepless night waiting for a jury to come back on a case that could have gone either way. Years of courtroom advocacy and life as a lawyer will do that. So will running a firm.

Grey hair isn’t a metaphor. It’s evidence. It’s what happens when you practice law long enough to be responsible not just for your own caseload, but for other lawyers in the firm, other families, and the next generation trying to learn how to do this work the right way.

Lawyering isn’t the job they described to you in Law School

April 12, 2025

Waiver of Counsel in North Carolina

by Carolina Attorneys

Waiver of Counsel: Legal Framework and Standard of Review

Criminal defendants have a fundamental right to the assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I of the North Carolina Constitution. A defendant also has the right to proceed without counsel and represent himself or herself, but such waiver of counsel must be made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. North Carolina law requires trial courts to conduct a thorough inquiry before accepting a waiver of the right to counsel.

This inquiry is codified in N.C.G.S. § 15A-1242, which provides that a judge may allow a defendant to proceed pro se only after confirming that the defendant: