Sowing Seeds of Service: Grace Ward, 2022 Distinguished Paralegal Award Honoree

Grace Ward is a white woman with feathered blond hair that frames her face. She is wearing a soft blue patterned shirt with a circular neckline and a gold necklace. She is smiling and standing in front of green foliage.Grace Ward is the recipient of the 2022 Distinguished Paralegal Award, an honor that is meaningful for her because it reflects her commitment to serving others in her community.

Serving others is a value she shares with the attorneys she has worked with throughout her 36-year career. She describes how attorneys have spent time investing in her. In turn, she has made an impact on the lives of her clients and other paralegals in the state.

Giving back to others is a central mission in the legal field as a whole, and in her calling as a paralegal. She has planted seeds of service throughout her 24 years of NCBA membership, especially through her involvement in paralegal education and training.

It is no surprise that Ward enjoys gardening, as she is adept in sowing, watering, and watching for blooms.

This year, the garden in her yard was a stop on the Davidson County Master Gardener’s tour. The tour celebrated the history of her neighborhood, which was once the site of a fairground.

“The road is circular because it was the racetrack for the horses,” she shares.

A bright pink camellia from Grace's yard is pictured in full bloom. The image is a close-up of the flower taken from above, so that the full circular appearance of the flower is captured.

A camellia from Grace’s garden.

The gardens in her neighborhood are a testament to the work of former generations.

She relates how roses in one of her neighbor’s yard were originally planted by that neighbor’s grandmother and transplanted to the area. Similarly, the hydrangeas in Ward’s garden were planted not by the house’s first owner, but by the owner’s mother, before the flowers were moved to where they are now.

The 1947 home was established by the house’s first owner, who worked at Greensboro News and Record and created the camellia gardens that Ward continues to care for.

Like these gardens, Ward’s efforts within the Paralegal Division have grown and blossomed over time, and as she looks back, she reflects on all she has accomplished with her division and the friends she made along the way.

To receive the award was a recognition she had not anticipated, and one that called to mind the friends who had been honored in the past.

“It is overwhelming to think the attorneys I work with think so much of me that they nominated me. I don’t feel worthy of it because I know many other paralegals are so well-deserving. It was quite a surprise that I was nominated and that I am receiving the award.”

It has made a difference in her life to work with a community of people who prioritize service and education.

“The attorneys I work with encourage me and give me flexibility to participate in a lot of things. And so, it is a reflection on them, too. Because they know that I love education, and I love to share what I have learned. Because they support me, I can do that.”

Since she was young, Ward has valued learning and going beyond her comfort zone. She describes how as a teen, she was exposed to a new culture when her family moved from Kissimmee, Florida, to Grand Cayman. Her grandfather was born on the island, and her family relocated to spend time with her grandfather, who lived there.

She resided on the island from the year she entered ninth grade through her junior year in high school, attending a British school and an American school.

“I learned about different cultures and diversity. Of course, Grand Cayman at that time only had five hotels on the whole island, but many residents were from around the world.”

Her grandfather passed away during the last year she lived there, and he is now buried at Pedro St. James Castle. After his death, she returned to Florida and later made her way to North Carolina.

Discovering a Love of Service

Ward, a paralegal with Allman Spry in Winston-Salem, began her career in the nearby city of Lexington. In 1986, she joined Michael Swann, a solo practitioner, as an assistant in the firm’s office. The role, her first in the legal field, was an experience that changed the course of her professional career.

She remembers the day that Mike asked her if she would be interested in pursuing a paralegal education. Ward, who had two young children at the time, said she was not sure how she would be able to attend courses with her responsibilities both inside and outside the office. Mike gave her the flexibility she needed in the role to be able to further her education.

“He wanted me to attend Davidson County Community College, and I said, ‘I cannot do that. I have two small children and a husband.’ And he said, ‘Well, could you go during the day?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ I started taking one class per semester during the day.”

This opportunity made it possible for her to earn her associate’s degree in applied science in paralegal technology one course at a time. She would go on to receive her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in communications from Salem College.

Grace Ward, left, stands with Julie Hardison, right. Grace has wavy blond hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and she is wearing a red shirt and a grey blazer. Juli has long auburn hair is wearing a grey dress and a black jacket. They are both smiling and standing in front of a multi-colored blue and grey background.

Grace, left, and paralegal Julie Hardison, who worked with Grace at Davis, Harwell & Biggs.

She worked at the firm for close to four years, and the opportunity prepared her for her next role. She joined Davis & Harwell, a firm focused on civil litigation and family law, in 1990. The firm underwent changes throughout the years: it became Davis Harwell & Biggs, and, in 2014, the firm merged into Allman Spry Davis Leggett & Crumpler.

As she reflects on her career, she recalls another attorney who invested in her, Joslin Davis.

“Joslin was a great influence on my role as a volunteer and leader because she supported my efforts. For example, when I was asked to be on the NCBA’s Legal Assistants Division Council, she encouraged me. She said, ‘You can do this.’”

Ward has used her education to assist other attorneys. Several years ago, she heard that an attorney in Lexington had died, and attorney Beth Bunce needed help in closing the practice. Ward volunteered to help. She worked with Beth during the evenings and on the weekends.

“It was a way to help the clients of this attorney who died, and a way to help Beth. Why would I not help, when I had the ability?”

After working with Beth, Ward wrote about this topic in her article “Death and Taxes and Closing a Law Practice,” a piece published in the North Carolina State Bar Journal in 2010.

She has assisted other paralegals in the state, and she also makes a difference by investing in the lives of her clients. She uses her role to offer information on skills that will be useful in their lives. When clients need support creating a budget and ascertaining their assets and debts, she is there to help. By explaining detailed concepts to her clients, she helps the attorneys she works for to have the information needed for determining support and equitable distribution.

How does she prioritize her different responsibilities in the office and outside it? She describes stepping back to think about what is important: her family, the attorneys she serves with, her clients, and others in her community.

“My way to balance family and work is to ask, ‘What will it matter in five years?’ And that is where that flexibility comes in with the attorneys I work with. Kim Bonuomo and Anna Munroe know the importance of family and the importance of quality work for our clients.  Sometimes we need creative scheduling to accomplish balance – coming in early or staying a bit late one day to allow family time the next.

Becoming a Leader in the Division

Prioritizing what really matters is something she has been passionate about for a long time. This principle helped her to get involved in NCBA Paralegal Division early on.

After joining the NCBA Paralegal Division council in 1998, Ward scheduled council and committee meetings on her calendar to ensure others knew of her commitments. Through her years of dedication, she cultivated her skillset and volunteered time to advocate for paralegal education and training.

How powerful is it to be connected to paralegals across the state – both virtually and in person?

“Having that camaraderie and to be able to draw on others’ strengths – it’s priceless.”

She continues, saying it is rewarding to “rely on others to help me when I have question, or when I run into a brick wall, and I need to find out how to do something. I can put it on the listserv and people will respond. And there are times I am reading the listserv and someone else asks a question, I see the response, and that helps to educate me for what I need to do when that situation arises in my work.”

Recently, she had a question she had not yet found the answer to. She reached out to a paralegal experienced in that area. The paralegal replied with a two-page email, providing the information that Ward needed to understand the issue.

Connecting with other paralegals is one of the most important benefits of division membership. She has learned from mentors and made lifelong friends in the process.

“I think it is wonderful to develop friendships across the state with paralegals, learn through webcasts and in person seminars, work on committees with paralegals, and reach out to paralegals through text, email or a phone call, all because we met through the Paralegal Division.”

Ward has been watered by others, and she has poured into the lives of new paralegals, beginning with the first council she served on, which was led by Sharon Wall, the first chair of the division.

“She had the strength, the leadership skills and the professionalism to work with the bar association to create the division. Gray Wilson was the chair of the committee that helped to form the division. The division has grown and stretched its wings. As a division, we impact the paralegal profession, our legal community and our state.”

This image captures a meeting of the Legal Assistants Division being held in Winston-Salem.Ten indviduals sit at a long table in a hotel meeting room. Six of the individuals appear sitting next to each other on one side of the table, near the top of the photo, so that their faces are visible. The first woman, who is white, is wearing a grey button-down jacket, and she has curly brown hair. The second woman, who is white, has brown hair, and is wearing a black jacket and white shirt. The third woman, who is white, has short dark hair, and she is wearing a blue button-down shirt. The fourth person is a man, who is wearing a white button-down shirt and dark tie. The fifth person is Grace, who has light brown hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and is wearing a white button down shirt. The sixth person is a woman with short brown hair and a white shirt and black jacket. A binder is visible on the table, as are name tags of the people sitting there. There are four people on the opposite side of the table, pictured with their backs to the viewer. One woman has brown hair with a rust-colored shirt, another woman has short brown hair and is wearing a blue plaid shirt, another woman with curly hair has a pale floral shirt with blue and pink flowers, and the fourth woman has short, dark hair and is wearing a white sweater.

The 1999-2000 Legal Assistants Division meeting, held in Winston-Salem. Grace is pictured on the far right, second from the left.

While continuing in her role as a council member, Ward served as the Vice Chair of the division and as the Long-Range Planning Committee Chair in 2000.

When she became chair of the division in 2001, one of her goals was to offer opportunities for new paralegals to take part in continuing legal education. She specifically focused on this group because she wanted to them to be prepared for their roles and to have direction for the future.

Ward was invited to speak to Davidson-Davie Community College, and during her talk, she encouraged paralegals to join an association because of the networking and educational opportunities offered through membership. Through her conversations with paralegal students at the community college, she made an important discovery.

“I realized the Paralegal Division could connect with paralegal students by creating a committee to network with the community college programs.”

She shares that the purpose of the division was to “create a standard of education for paralegals and be a conduit for continuing education for paralegals. And that includes, in my opinion, the paralegal students.”

In 1997, she served as adjunct professor at Davidson-Davie Community College while working full time at Allman Spry.

Ward’s work as chair created opportunities for students to become active members of the association and to build relationships at the start of their career. The division began holding seminars, often on Fridays, so that new paralegals could join in. These opportunities have helped new paralegals to build a solid foundation for the future.

She continues to support paralegal students at Davidson by serving on the advisory board for the paralegal program there. She has spoken on the topic of legal careers at North Davidson High School, and on equitable distribution case management at Wake Forest University School of Law.

In this photo, fourteen people stand in front of the stairway at the bar center in Cary. Left to right, the individuals are pictured and you see a Black woman, who stands on the left, and she has dark hair and is wearing a white button-down shirt, a woman with short brown hair and glasses who is wearing a blue dress, a woman behind her with grey hair and a white shirt whose face is obscured, a woman with brown hair ina ponytail and a grey and orange colorblocked dress, a woman in the front with short brown hair and a white button-down shirt, a woman in the back with dark, short brown hair and a white-button down shirt, a woman behind her with brown hair in a ponytail, a woman in front with short light-brown hair and a black dress, a woman with short dark hair in a blue shirt and patterned pants, a woman with brown hair in the back in a rust-colored shirt, a woman with short brown hair in the front and who wears a purple turtleneck with a black jacket, and Grace, who stands on the far right and is wearing a light grey short-sleeved suit jacket with a black color. Grace's hair is short, wavy and blond. A man stands behind her, and he has grey hair, glasses, and a black jacket on.

The Legal Assistants Division Council, 2022. Grace stands on the right-hand side.

What are some of the most important lessons she has learned during her career and her service, lessons she would like to share with new paralegals?

“Never stop learning. I tell my daughters, ‘Your day is not wasted if you learned something new.’ Continuing education is something required in law because it is ever-changing. Another lesson is be patient. And listening is the third thing. Listening to the attorneys and the instructions they give me, listening to the clients and what they are really saying.”

Two specific resources provided by the NCBA have helped her to continue learning over the years.

“The Expert Series CLE webcast that I access each month, which is part of our membership – I love attending those because a lot of times it is on an area I don’t practice in, and it helps educate me.

“The other valuable resource is Catherine Sanders Reach. Every time she has a webcast, I try to work my schedule so I can attend because I learn a lot from her. I think it is especially important for paralegals to understand technology – what is on the horizon. And the end-of-the-week blog Catherine does, I love that.”

What is her favorite part of her job?

“The fact that I can make a positive difference for the attorneys and for the clients.”

She continues, “My job is to make the attorney’s job easier. I need to be able to contribute and make a difference for the attorneys and for the clients. Family law can be challenging because you are dealing with people’s lives, their heartaches, their worries, and overwhelming concerns. As I go through my day, I want to make the attorney’s job easier by doing my job, and I want to make the client’s life better.”

Grace's granddaughter, a toddler with curly blond hair and wearing a blue dress, stands in yellow flowers in Grace's garden.

Eleanor, Grace’s granddaughter, pictured in Grace’s garden.

Her interest in serving others in the paralegal community stems from her own experiences – from being supported by people who have encouraged her to achieve all that she could.

“Through the years, I have been the recipient of assistance from many people. And I always feel if I can make a positive difference for someone, I want to. Several years ago, I saw a quote by Charles Dickens: ‘No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.’ And I thought, you know, the reason I can do what I am doing, enjoy doing and love doing is because other people helped me. That goes back to first attorney I worked for.”

As the seeds others have planted in her life have taken root, Ward has sown fields of her own. She has yielded an abundant harvest.

Jessica Junqueira is communications manager for the North Carolina Bar Association.