New Board Members, Vice Presidents Serving In 2022-23

Seven new members of the NCBA Board of Governors were elected to three-year terms at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Winston-Salem on Friday, June 24, and will begin their service with the 2022-23 bar year. They are joined by four new vice presidents who were elected to one-year terms in April and an additional vice president who was elected to a two-year term.

The new board members are:

Ben Baldwin (Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A., Charlotte)

Ben Baldwin is a white man with brown hair and dark eyes. He is wearing circular brown glasses, a white shirt, a green tie and a black jacket. He is smiling with his mouth closed and standing against a grey background.Ben Baldwin is a past chair of the NCBA Business Law Section, where he served from 2019-21, and 2016 recipient of the section’s Distinguished Service Award. He is a 1984 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and a 1988 graduate of UNC School of Law, where he graduated with honors, earned Order of the Coif, and served as note and comment editor for the North Carolina Law Review.

Heidi Bloom (Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton LLP, Raleigh)

Heidi Bloom is a white woman with shoulder-length blond hair. She is wearing dark glasses, a bright pink shirt with a collar, and a dark jacket. She is standing in a room with wood walls and artwork in the background.Heidi Bloom is a past chair of the NCBA Family Law Section, where she served in 2018-19, and the 2021 recipient of the section’s Distinguished Service Award. She is a 1991 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a 1995 graduate of Wake Forest University School of Law, where she was member of the National Moot Court Team and Moot Court Board, a teacher’s assistant for Legal Research and Writing, and elected to the Order of the Barristers.

Larissa Mervin (Legal Aid of North Carolina, Charlotte)

Larissa Mervin is a hispanic woman with brown hair longer than her shoulders and brown eyes. She is wearing a black blouse and a grey jacket, and she is smiling.Larissa (Manon) Mervin serves as a supervising attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina, where she supervises the Domestic Violence Unit of the Charlotte office. She is a 2008 summa cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a 2011 cum laude graduate of Quinnipiac University School of Law, where she received the Distinguished Scholars Law Award, and was a visiting student at UNC School of Law in 2010-11. She serves as treasurer of the NCBA Family Law Section and is a past co-chair of the Pro Bono Committee, and a 2021-22 ABA YLD Scholar.

Sidney O. Minter (Advance Auto Parts, Raleigh)

Sidney Minter is a Black man with a shaved head and a black beard and mustache. He is pictured wearing black-rimmed glasses, a dark turtleneck and a black jacket, and he is sitting with a dark background behind him.Sidney O. Minter serves as associate counsel at Advance Auto Parts, and previously held the position of labor and employment attorney with the company. He is a 2004 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he was a member of the Mu Iota Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., a 2008 graduate of High Point University, where he earned a master’s in public administration, and a 2011 graduate of North Carolina Central University School of Law, where he graduated cum laude and served as editor-in-chief of the NCCU Law Review.

Will Oden (Ward and Smith, P.A., Wilmington)

Will Oden is a white man with brown hair. he is wearing a white shirt and a dark jacket, and he stands with a green background behind him.Will Oden is a labor and employment attorney with Ward and Smith, which he joined in 2004, and a mediator who has been certified by the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission since 2013. He is a 2001 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a 2004 graduate of Campbell University, where he received an MBA and earned a juris doctor from Campbell Law School, where he served as business editor and staff member of Campbell Law Review and Honor Court Justice. Oden is a past chair of the NCBA Annual Meeting Committee and member of the NCBA Leadership Academy Class of 2014.

Ashley Rusher (Blanco Tackabery & Matamoros, P.A., Winston-Salem)

Ashley Rusher is a white woman with shoulder-length blond hair. She is wearing a blue blouse and a double-stranded gold necklace. She is pictured smiling and standing against a grey background.Ashley Rusher serves on the firm’s Management Committee and as chair of the Business Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights Practice Group and the Outside General Counsel Services Practice Group. She is a 1984 graduate of the University of Kentucky and 1987 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, and in 1986-87 was a visiting student at Wake Forest University School of Law. She served as chair of the NCBA Bankruptcy Section in 2016-17 and has also served as president and board chair of the Middle District Bankruptcy Seminars, Inc.

Monica Webb-Shackleford (N.C. Utilities Commission, Raleigh)

Monica Webb Shackelford is a white woman with dark brown, shoulder-length hair. She is pictured wearing a red blouse and a black jacket. She is standing in front of a wall with a painting with yellow designs in the background.Monica Webb-Shackelford serves as an attorney with the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and previously served as an N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission Superior Court Mediator while practicing with Webb Shackelford PLLC. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she earned a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in public health, and UNC School of Law, where she served on the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology and received the Gressman-Pollitt Oral Advocacy Award. She is a past president of the N.C. Association of Women Attorneys and past co-chair of the NCBA Women in the Profession Committee and NCBA Awards and Recognitions Committee.

The new vice presidents are:

One-Year Terms

Associate Justice Anita Earls (N.C. Supreme Court, Raleigh)

Justice Anita Earls is woman with brown, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. She is pictured wearing a black robe and a double strand of pearls, and she is smiling. She stands in front of a wood-paneled wall with the state flag in the background.Associate Justice Anita Earls has served on the Supreme Court of North Carolina since January 2019. She graduated magna cum laude in 1981 from Williams College, where she received a Lehman Scholarship, and Yale Law School, where she was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. She joined Ferguson, Stein, Watt, Wallas, Adkins & Gresham in 1988 and was appointed by President Clinton in 1998 to serve as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. She founded the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in 2007 and served for 10 years as its executive director.

Judge Graham Shirley (N.C. Superior Court, Raleigh)

Judge Graham Shirley is a white man with brown hair and dark eyes. he is wearing a coral bowtie, a white shirt and a brown jacket. He stands in front of a bookcase with gold legal books.Judge A. Graham Shirley II serves as a Superior Court judge in District 10F. He was appointed to the bench by Governor McCrory in 2015 to fill the unexpired term of Judge Howard Manning Jr. and elected to an eight-year term without opposition in 2016. He is a 1985 graduate of Virginia Military Institute and 1988 graduate of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary. He engaged in private practice from 1993-2015.

Judge Jimmy L. Myers (N.C. District Court, Advance)

Judge Myers is a white man with pale blond hair and clear glasses. He is pictures wearing a white shirt, black jacket and red and yellow tie, and he is smiling.Judge Jimmy L. Myers serves as a District Court judge for Judicial District 22B, serving Davidson and Davie counties. He has served on the bench since 1994, and in 2021 was appointed by Chief Justice Newby to serve as chief District Court judge. Judge Myers is a 1975 graduate of Wake Forest University and 1991 graduate of UNC School of Law, and also received a Master of Divinity from Emory University in 1978. Prior to his service on the bench, he engaged in private practice and served as a mediator.

Assistant Dean Robert Birrenkott (UNC School of Law, Chapel Hill)

Rob Birrenkott is a white man with dark brown hair and a beard and mustache. He is wearing a white shirt, black jacket and dark tie. He stands against a white background.Robert Birrenkott serves as the assistant dean for career development. He is a 2002 magna cum laude graduate of the University of Tampa and 2005 graduate of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he previously served as assistant dean. He is a past president of the Eighth Judicial Circuit Bar Association, from which he received the Chief Justice’s Voluntary Bar Association Pro Bono Service Award, and former member of The Florida Bar Committee for Division and Inclusion.

Two-Year Term

Richard Thigpen (Kirk Palmer & Thigpen, P.A., Charlotte)

Richard Thigpen is a white man with grey hair. He is pictured wearing a white shirt with a black jacket and pale blue tie, and he is smiling and standing against a cream-colored background.Richard Thigpen rejoined Kirk Palmer & Thigpen in 2018 following more than two decades of service as general counsel for the Carolina Panthers. He is an N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission Certified Superior Court Mediator and panelist for the Sports and Commercial Law panels of the American Arbitration Association. He is a graduate of Duke University and Campbell Law School, and also holds an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. He served as chair of the NCBA Sports & Entertainment Law Section in 2003-04.

Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.