Nearly 15 years as a professional journalist trained me to ask the right questions, research thoroughly, and write on deadline. Those skills are essential to my second career, the practice of law. Thousands of stories from public housing to the marbled halls of Congress taught me how to approach different people and problems. They taught me to make the complex comprehensible and the simple important.I’ve fought for clients before judges, jurors, arbitrators, and mediators in varied cases, including complex business litigation, medical malpractice, and other areas of law. I also have an active appellate practice in which I've argued before the N.C. Court of Appeals and Supreme Court as well as the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.When publicity is a factor for our clients, I provide proactive and reactive media advice from a reporter’s perspective. People sometimes ask if I miss the papers. I don't, because I'm still chasing stories — about my clients, what happened to them, and who is responsible. Now it's my job to craft how those stories end.