Legal Practice Hall of Fame Class of 2024: Edwin M. Speas, Jr.
Eddie Speas’ legal career has been divided between the public and private sectors. From 1971 to 2003 he was a member of the staff of the North Carolina Attorney General, working in various roles including head of the special litigation group and Chief Deputy Attorney General. From 2009-11, he served as General Counsel for Governor Beverly Perdue. From 2003 to 2009, and again from 2011 to the present, he has been a partner at Poyner Spruill in Raleigh.
Over all those years, it has been his great fortune to work beside talented colleagues representing great clients from the public and private sectors in interesting and consequential lawsuits in state and federal courts. Some of those lawsuits involved disputes about educational policies, like testing, private school regulation, vouchers and the scope of the state constitutional right “to the privilege of education.” Others involved gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts, in all its forms. In 1990 Eddie was the first recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Education Section of the Bar Association, and in 2001 he was made a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is honored and humbled by his selection to the Bar Association’s Hall of Fame.
Eddie grew up in Boonville in Yadlin County and is a proud “Double Deacon.” He and his wife Debra Stewart have two great kids and four amazing grandchildren.