EQUAL TREATMENT

Feature article about how "Charlotte's Ferguson Stein Chambers et al. have made an integral difference" in the area of civil rights.

THE TOP 50 WOMEN

Geraldine Sumter was again recognized as one of North Carolina's Super Lawyers in the areas of Employment & Labor, Civil Rights/First Amendment, and Workers' Compensation.  Ms. Sumter was also again listed among the Top 50 women lawyers in the state based on receiving among the highest point totals in the nomination, research and blue ribbon review process.

THE TOP 100 LAWYERS

James Ferguson was again recognized as one of North Carolina's Super Lawyers in the areas of Personal Injury (medical malpractice and general plaintiff work) and Civil Rights/First Amendment. Mr. Ferguson was also again listed among the Top 100 lawyers in the state based on receiving among the highest point totals in the nomination, research and blue ribbon review process.

DEATH IN GEORGIA

This featured article by Jeffrey Toobin in The New Yorker examines the Brian Nichols death penalty case in Atlanta, Georgia.  In July, 2005, Henderson Hill and Jake Sussman were appointed to represent Mr. Nichols.

Excerpt:

In July, 2005, he approved the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council’s selection of Henderson Hill, an accomplished criminal-defense lawyer from Charlotte, North Carolina, who specializes in death-penalty cases, to lead a new team of four. "I felt that this case was difficult enough that we needed someone away from the local Atlanta legal community," Fuller said. "The indictment was fifty-four counts, there are eleven different crime scenes, and it was just a complicated case. The local criminal-defense bar did not come flocking to this case. I went to one of the best defense lawyers in Atlanta to ask him about taking this case, and he said, 'Heavens, no. I knew Judge Barnes too well.' Judge Barnes was loved by everyone here. That decision--hiring the lawyers from North Carolina--has been the thing that caused the most trouble, because it's been expensive to have people come in from out of state."

Defense costs for travel and lodging have been substantial, though Hill cut his usual hourly rate from three hundred and fifty dollars to a hundred and seventy-five dollars, and his colleague--Jacob Sussman, from Hill’s North Carolina firm, and Robert L. McGlasson, a veteran death-penalty specialist in Atlanta--are working for less. A fourth lawyer, Penny Marshall, volunteers her time.

DEMS CHAIR APOLOGIZES, QUITS OVER SHERIFF VOTE

The firm represented Mecklenburg County Sheriff-elect Nick Mackey during the controversial election process to replace outgoing Sheriff James Pendergraph.

THE BRIAN NICHOLS TRIAL

Henderson Hill and Jake Sussman were appointed to represent Brian Nichols on capital murder charges in Fulton County, Georgia.  Mr. Nichols was charged with killing four people, including a judge, court reporter, and two law enforcement officers.

SYMPOSIUM: MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE DEATH PENALTY

The firm played a central role in the creation and organzation of this important symposium on mental illness and the death penalty.

Press Release:  

"Nationally-recognized scholars, psychologists, and legal experts will deliberate the most controversial aspect of the death penalty --mental illness -- at a symposium 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. October 20, 2006 at the new Charlotte School of Law. The program, titled Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: Seeking a "Reasoned Moral Response" to an Unavoidable Condition is hosted by the Charlotte School of Law, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, the John S. Leary Bar Association, and the Charlotte Coalition for a Moratorium Now. The event will be followed by a reception at the school.

The symposium will feature a variety of speakers with diverse backgrounds in order to capture the many issues surrounding mental illness and the death penalty."

5 QUESTIONS FOR HENDERSON HILL

Excerpt:

Q: Why did you agree to defend Nichols?
A: I have spent 25 years practicing and teaching the art of trial advocacy, and a significant part of the last 15 years thinking about and working through the difficult issues associated with the trials of death penalty cases. . . . The first calling of a trial lawyer is to translate difficult and complex facts and frequently arcane legal concepts into comprehensible terms and to do so in a persuasive manner. I think I can help do that. Beyond that, violence, and most especially deadly violence, hurts families and communities in many and often complex ways. My view of the art of criminal defense calls on the lawyer to be sensitive to those injuries and to seek restorative justice wherever possible. The community in Fulton County is in tremendous need of restorative justice."

NICHOLS DEFENSE WANTS FULTON JURY -- BUT NO TRIAL IN FULTON COURTHOUSE

Henderson Hill and Jake Sussman were appointed to represent Brian Nichols on capital murder charges in Fulton County, Georgia.  Mr. Nichols was charged with killing four people, including a judge, court reporter, and two law enforcement officers.

FERGUSON STEIN PRESENTED WITH CIVIL RIGHTS LEGACY AWARD

Ferguson, Stein, Chambers, Adkins, Gresham and Sumter, P.A., was presented with the Civil Rights Legacy Award by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan legal organization formed at the request of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The reception and presentation took place at the Levine Museum of the New South on August 12 and included reminiscences by the named partners. The event was in conjunction with the National Bar Association's convention in Charlotte.

Robert Harrington of Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., vice-chair of the Southeast Region for the Lawyers' Committee, made remarks and observed, "Ferguson Stein is not only a Charlotte institution, but also a national legal institution. No law firm in the country has had more impact on--and I suspect sacrificed more for--the cause of civil rights than Ferguson Stein. My guess is that there is no close second. This, often in the face of threats and hostility that have been real and tangible.  

He continued by saying, "From education and employment rights cases to voting rights cases to police brutality cases to prisoners' rights case, Ferguson Stein's representations have affected the way we learn and where we learn, have vindicated our right to vote and work, and have protected our citizens from improper arrest and mistreatment at the hands of the government."