Judge Linda Stephens has been awarded the J. Robert Elster Award for Professional Excellence for 2015 by the NC Association of Defense Attorneys (NCADA).
This Award, named in honor and recognition of J. Robert Elster, a founding member and second president of the NCADA, recognized current and past members who exemplify the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethics and conducts him or herself in a civil, courteous manner with all persons. The recipient must exemplify sustained excellent service to individual and corporate defendants in civil litigation, to the Bar and to the community.
Judge Stephens is especially deserving of this recognition by the members of the NCADA having achieved many "firsts' in her career. She served as the first female law clerk for Chief Judge Hedrick at the NC Court of Appeals, the woman lawyer to join the law firm of Teague Campbell Dennis & Gorham and that firm's first female partner. She is among the first female members of the NCADA, the first female to serve as president in 2001-2002, the first President of the NCADA to receive the Fred H. Seivert Award from DRI, which recognizes the outstanding president of all state defense organizations, and she is the first NCADA president to serve as a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. It is only fitting that Judge Stephens be the first female recipient of this Award - an award that was established under her leadership as NCADA president.
In addition to her many career successes, Judge Stephens is truly dedicated to service: to her clients; her friends; to the many, many animals that she’s fostered, mothered and nursed; and now to the people of the State of North Carolina.
The NCADA is pleased to recognize Judge Linda Stephens as the 2015 recipient of the J. Robert Elster Award for Professional Excellence.
