Staying Open to the Unexpected: A Conversation with Linda Stephens, 2020 Recipient of the H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award

While Stephens did not know Judge McKnight, she knew him by reputation. “He was an incredibly unique individual both personally and professionally, of the highest caliber.”

This award is especially significant to Stephens because of her service with the Professionalism Committee. “Years ago, I was a member of the Committee when they developed this award. I was one of the members who reviewed the nominations and supporting materials. I saw the accomplishments of the recipients while I was intimately involved with the process—I didn’t consider myself in the same category. We wanted to give everyone the award because they deserved it. I never expected to be nominated.”

Stephens is grateful for the people in her life who encouraged her to pursue education and reach her highest potential. When asked about her career trajectory, she describes the impact of her grandparents and teachers. Raised by her grandparents, Stephens grew up in Woodruff, South Carolina. She remembers her childhood as a different time and way of life.

“We ate what my grandfather grew in the garden. We did not have running water.” Her grandfather dropped out of school during third grade, but he read his Bible every day, as well as the newspaper. Her grandmother was illiterate. Yet they encouraged her to prioritize learning. “My grandparents made me believe that education was a key to a better life, if I worked hard enough. I had phenomenal public school teachers.”

Stephens recalls a time when, during the first grade, tonsillitis prevented her from going to school for an extended time. One teacher, Mrs. McCall, brought materials to her house and made sure Stephens had the help she needed to complete her homework.

When she was a sophomore, she wrote her first poem, “Ode to an Earthworm,” on the topic of dissecting a worm in a high school biology class. She considers the piece “her first effort at animal activism,” a major and lifelong passion. The poem was published in a national anthology of student poetry.

Stephens has found her calling in the legal profession—she immensely enjoys her current role as an appellate practitioner—yet she was not interested in becoming a lawyer until after college, where she studied writing. She graduated from the University of South Carolina, where she double majored in English and journalism. She also studied French and Spanish and was only one credit short of a foreign language major. She especially enjoyed reading the novels of William Faulkner, and she continued to write poetry, some of which has been published.

While still in college, she was a journalist at The Greenville News in Greenville, South Carolina. After graduating and moving to Raleigh, she worked for the Associated Press as a “stringer.” She recalls one memorable assignment with the AP: at a time when very few women were writing about sports, she covered a North Carolina State University basketball game when David Thompson was on the team and wrote a play-by-play of the event.

For Stephens, there is a close relationship between journalism and the law. “Journalism is the perfect training for the law because you ask questions, and you listen and come up with follow-up questions. You put it together in a package to make sure that everyone can understand it. This is what lawyers do.”

She has significant experience in writing, yet Stephens’s goal coming out of law school was to represent employees. “I wanted to work for the Textile Workers Union of America since my family members worked in a cotton mill.” But her plans changed after a personal loss. Stephens’s husband, who worked as a state government reporter for the Associated Press, was transferred to North Carolina, and they relocated to Raleigh. During the first semester of her second year in law school, he died. “It was not what I had planned. I never expected what happened.” Despite loss and change, she persevered. When she became a law clerk to Judge Fred Hedrick in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, she was the first female clerk to work with him. Then, she obtained a position at the Industrial Commission at a time when Workers’ Compensation was not taught in law school. Throughout these experiences, she continued to grow: “I learned what a good lawyer is and what a bad lawyer is.”

After working in civil litigation for 24 years, Stephens would go on to serve on the Court of Appeals. Her friends encouraged her to run for the position. Transitioning from a specialized law practitioner to a judge was another significant change in her life. “I discovered that I loved the work. It was different from law school, but similar in that I was constantly learning and researching and understanding, as well as putting the puzzle pieces together. The pieces did not always fit exactly. I absolutely loved every minute.”

The position was especially meaningful because she had worked with Judge Hedrick many years before. As an Associate Judge, she remembered her time there as a clerk and her work with Judge Hedrick. “His portrait hangs in the Courtroom, and I frequently looked at it. Sometimes, it was like he was laughing with me. Sometimes he was smiling at me.”

Her experiences have taught her to be open to what might happen because change often leads to revelation and self-realization. Now, as she mentors new lawyers at Hedrick Gardner, her two key pieces of advice are to “keep an open mind” and “don’t give up”: