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Polymath in the Law - Janet Ward Black - Part 8
Polymath in the Law - Janet Ward Black - Part 8
We are joined by attorney extraordinaire Janet Ward Black of the Ward Black Law Firm.
Law Talk is a non-partisan forum to discuss the law and legislation, developing legal issues, public policy, and practice tips for legal professionals and Lawyers in North Carolina.
We invite speakers from different backgrounds and perspectives to be guests.
I was on a North Carolina bar association, legislative advisory committee meeting yesterday. I'm continued to be active even though I was president of those organizations more than 15 years or more ago. I don't know if you remember this. I have a fond memory of you. I had just recently. been told that I was gonna be president of NCAA and the mark trial competition was in.
And we were, the NCH is the host of that and does great work. One of my pals from law school, Becky Briton, Rebecca Briton still very active in the organization, but we were in one of the uptown towers and because we were holding the national event. We got some national level speakers. And I actually got to meet justice Scalia and talk to him for a few minutes, which was really interesting.
And I'll never forget some of the things he told me about. We were just standing there a few minutes and told me what the problems were with the Supreme court, which I thought were really interesting. But after I spoke with him, I saw you. And I think I may have seen Pisco David Pisco, and I think Chris Nichols was there and Dick Taylor and I was still freaked out cuz man taking.
The reigns of that organization is wow. It's something I've always wanted to do. And the mantle responsibility is overwhelming. And I remember you, you approached me, I think, and said, you're gonna be okay, we're gonna get you through this. And I said, I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing. And you said, we get you through this.
So thank you for that kindness. It meant a lot. And I remember sitting down with my wife and Sammy and she said, that's a nice person. She, you needed that. So thank you, Janet Moore. I don't know how many years ago did a magnificent job? Not as, there's never as much as you like to get done. There's never enough time.
I, I enjoyed the time and I'm so happy with the people who have taken the role since then. People, Brad, Bannon, who. These are all I say, every one of 'em, dear friend, Brad Bannon and David Henson and John McCabe and Valerie, and none of the people in front of me, you and mark Sumal and Chris Nichols. And it's just, it's every one of 'em.
I use this very simple metric in life. If you're the type of person, if you call me in tune in the morning, I, and say, I got a flat tire, come change your tire for you. And every one of those people I say, okay, where are you at? That's let's I'll drive up when Salem change your tire for you. So we're living in a different.
Right now, I think you and I both try to be positive. I catch my occasional grief for the apparently I'm the king of dad jokes now on Facebook. I think Jay tray. You asked me if I had no shame or you not afraid of the fall, a fellow duke person to chapel hill person. And so I'd say we try to focus on the positive, be a little bit goofy, and there are plenty of things to be negative about where right now we're dealing with tragedy over in Ukraine.
But what are some of the positives that you see? Understanding there's room for improvement. And so it could be positives in the community. It could be positives in the law. What are your thoughts about that? What do you see? That's good. Now, a couple things come to mind. We have some 30 year old lawyers here in our office that are absolutely sparkling that they're going to achieve so much.
And they're so much smarter than I was when I was 30. And they are people of great charact. And great motivation and they strive for continuous excellence. And so I can see what they can do with just a little bit of think about joining this or think about being a part of that enlarge their. Horizons on the world they're gonna do just great.
And so I'm very excited about the young crop of lawyers that I see coming along. There is a thought process that you're supposed to balance your work and your life. And they left that part out when I was at duke. And so I never really heard about that nor did I think about it too very much. I just figured I would do what I needed to do, but these younger lawyers seem to really be figuring out a way to try to do.
It is not easy. You either run a great law practice and you, or you have a great relationship with your family and you have a lot of investment involvement in the community, but doing all three at one time is almost impossible. So I think you have to go through seasons where there's a focus. On one of those three kind of columns, what I've seen so far, they're doing a really good job of balancing that.
So I am encouraged also, we have the opportunity at the firm where we know so many non-profits in our area that are doing remarkable work on frankly, very little funds, a lot of times, and there's a great amount of infrastructure that's out there to support them. And so I think. I, the great thing we like to do is to make sure that this person knows about this other person, that they may have two different nonprofits, but they're trying to invent the same wheel and it can connect them together.
We can make their lives easier. We get to just see some really remarkable things. I'll give you. I'll give you one Mecklenburg county example. And because it is a difficult situation, I'm not gonna name the name of the nonprofit. I'm gonna tell you what they do. They go to strip. and they minister, they provide sort of emotional support for women who are working in the strip clubs.
