The year 2008 was historic and memorable for lots of reasons, and special for us because we were just getting started as a new law firm.
People will remember that year as the year of a historic Presidential election, the start of the Great Recession, and the release of Taylor Swift’s second album, Fearless, when she was a country music star, and this became the most-awarded country album of all time.
Earlier that year, Joe Biden dropped out of the running for President, but then went on to be nominated and elected as Barack Obama’s vice president. In the March Madness, Roy Williams brought his Tar Heels basketball team to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight, and the Final Four, and then lost to Roy’s former team, the Kansas Jayhawks, who went on to win the national championship that year in an overtime victory.
We filed our organization papers on the same day that Lehman Brothers, a huge investment bank, filed for bankruptcy. Two days after we opened the doors of our new firm, President Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act to provide funding to purchase failing bank assets, after a 777 point plunge of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and stock market declines around the world. Some days we were thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best time to start a new business. These were scary days, but we persevered and tried to be fearless.
That year, one of our current lawyers was applying for admission to law school, another one was in high school, and another was a survivor of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans, who moved to North Carolina and came to work with us the following year. Our paralegal was 9 years old then. Now we have all grown up. Can we have the car keys?
Thanks to the great clients we have been honored to serve and to advise, and thanks to the wonderful team with whom we work, we are celebrating our firm’s 16th year, many successes for our clients, and many great memories. Sixteen years later, we are blessed to be, blessed to be here, and blessed to be here together.