Partner, Grier Wright Martinez, PA
Hometown: Melbourne, Florida
Education: University of Florida / UNC School of Law
Your most vivid memory of your BLI experience: Strangers showing up to the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory during our BLI retreat asking to speak with me (call me if you want the whole story).
What you value most about your BLI experience: What I value second most about my BLI experience is that I gained tools to help me assess how effectively I am communicating with others and strategies for honing my actions to more efficiently achieve desired outcomes. What I value most is the friendships/relationships, but I’m sure almost everyone responds to this question with that answer because it is the objectively correct response.
Advice you'd give to the next BLI class: You get what you give.
Past and current MCB/MBF volunteer service: MCB Communications Committee, MCB CLE Committee, MCB/MBF BLI Committee, MBF Board, MBF Development Committee, MBF Executive Committee.
Current personal or leadership goals: My goal is to be more consistent in my leadership style (and, similarly, parenting style). Consistency in tone and method is crucial to effective leadership (and parenting).
Greatest leadership accomplishment and why: Working together with a physician friend of mine who was practicing palliative medicine at Levine Cancer Institute, we founded an initiative to assist terminal cancer patients with end-of-life planning, particularly immigrant parents leaving behind orphaned children. I am most proud of this because it was difficult work that had a significant impact on some people.
Topic you'd like to learn more about and why: Having recently completed implicit bias training through Race Matters for Juvenile Justice, I’d like to learn more about how Bar leaders can identify and seek to address institutional racism within our local legal/court/law enforcement systems.
Favorite place to go in Charlotte (pre-pandemic): Any brewery.
What you do when you're not lawyering: Hanging out with my kids, playing tennis, playing guitar, woodworking.
Something on the horizon that you're excited about: Can’t wait to resume the annual trip to Folly Beach that we do with friends from college.