Chris Edwards is an attorney at Ward and Smith in Wilmington, with 11 years of practice concentrating in appellate advocacy before North Carolina’s state courts and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice.

Edwards has been appointed by both the North Carolina Supreme Court and the 4th Circuit to argue cases involving significant constitutional questions, including a First Amendment case involving body-worn camera footage restrictions and a civil rights matter connected to a Baltimore officer later convicted under RICO.

His bar leadership includes serving as Legislative Committee Chair for the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Section and on the Executive Board of the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers.

He said appellate practice appeals to him because each case is like a puzzle — reading the pertinent cases and figuring out how to fit his client’s facts into the legal framework to achieve the most favorable outcome.

Stephen Feldman is a shareholder at Robinson Bradshaw in Raleigh, with 23 years of practice concentrating in appellate advocacy, complex business disputes and antitrust matters.

Feldman has chaired the Appellate Practice Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, the Appellate Practice Committee of the ABA’s Section of Litigation and the Appellate Practice Committee of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel. He has also served 15 years in leadership of the ABA’s Antitrust Law Section and was appointed vice chair of a committee that rewrote the rules of the North Carolina Business Court.

His notable matters include representing the North Carolina Board of Physical Therapy Examiners in a dry needling regulatory dispute that resulted in a unanimous North Carolina Supreme Court affirmance and representing an industrial parts manufacturer in a complex toxic exposure trial.

He is drawn to appellate practice for the same reason he was drawn to teaching — the challenge of making complex subjects accessible and engaging for the reader or listener.

James Kilbourne is a partner at Allen Stahl & Kilbourne in Asheville, with 29 years of practice concentrating in appellate law, federal criminal law and Indian law. He is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in both Appellate Practice and Federal Criminal Law.

Kilbourne served as the first chief prosecutor for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for six years, during which he helped modernize the Cherokee Court system, drafted scores of statutes and developed a jurisdictional framework for a court that had only been founded in 2000. His work on tribal jurisdiction drew national attention and speaking engagements before the Federal Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the U.S. Department of Justice.

His notable appellate matters include United States v. Smith, a 4th Circuit opinion in a federal terrorism case, and obtaining a grant of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court in Gibson v. United States.

Emily Meister is the managing partner of Law Firm Carolinas in Greensboro, with more than 15 years of practice concentrating in commercial litigation, corporate governance disputes, employment matters, insurance coverage defense and personal injury. She is licensed in both North Carolina and South Carolina.

Meister has tried numerous jury and bench trials, argued appeals in state and federal courts and handled matters before the North Carolina Business Court. Her commercial litigation practice focuses primarily on closely held companies and shareholders in governance disputes, contract matters and business torts.

She is a 2010 graduate of Leadership Greensboro and has served on community boards including Heartstrings Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, where she served as past chair. She is a member of the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, the Greensboro Bar Association and the American Inns of Court.

Preston Odom III is a partner at Gardner Skelton in Charlotte, with 29 years of practice concentrating in appellate law, complex civil and family law litigation and business disputes. He is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice.

Odom clerked at the Supreme Court of Florida before entering private practice. His notable representations include Gloria Pace King v. United Way of the Central Carolinas, Jeremy Mayfield v. NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway v. County of Cabarrus, which was litigated through the North Carolina Supreme Court.

His bar leadership includes serving as former chair of both the North Carolina State Bar’s Appellate Practice Specialization Exam Committee and the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section. He currently serves on the NCBA’s Appellate Rules Committee.

Amanda Pooler is a partner at Akerman in Charlotte, with 14 years of practice concentrating in complex corporate and securities litigation on the defense side.

Pooler clerked in the Delaware Court of Chancery before entering private practice — an experience she credits with shaping her focus on corporate and M&A disputes. Early in her career she worked on a series of cases arising from a $70 billion merger of four publicly traded entities, including a successfully defended high-stakes preliminary injunction hearing and multiple appeals. Her clients include a global investment bank, private equity portfolio companies and a shareholder representative company.

She is actively involved in the American Bar Association’s M&A Committee, Women in M&A Subcommittee and Business and Corporate Litigation Committee.

She said she strives to “engage” fully in every matter — staying invested, informed about emerging trends and proactive in supporting both clients and her team — and finds mentoring junior lawyers one of the most rewarding aspects of her practice.

D. Martin Warf is a partner at Nelson Mullins in Raleigh, with 20 years of practice concentrating in appellate law. He is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice.

Warf has represented the North Carolina General Assembly in numerous constitutional challenges involving the separation of powers, including 2018 litigation over judicial primaries and constitutional amendments. He served nearly 15 years on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee.

A particularly meaningful moment came when a pro bono client he represented — and ultimately could not prevail for — called after oral argument to say he could tell the court was listening and that Warf had done a tremendous job regardless of the outcome.

He said building trust with the court and camaraderie among colleagues has positioned him to lead, inform and connect people — qualities he considers more central to appellate leadership than any credential or title.