Our general counsel recognized by his peers

Mike Okun, out of character

In June of last year Business North Carolina magazine sent ballots to over the over 23,000 lawyers in the N.C. Bar, asking them to select the lawyers in the state who are at in the top of their fields.

The top vote-getter in the field of Employment Law was Mike Okun, our counsel and a partner in Patterson Harkavy.

For their article about the 2016 "Legal Elite", Business North Carolina asked this year's winners what they'd be doing if they weren't busy being the best lawyers in the state, as judged by their peers.

Mike Okun, who was a union ironworker in his former life (before law school), said he'd be happy today still doing just that.

I might also like to be an artist — I was an art major in college but, alas, insufficient artistic talent; a professional baseball player, alas, insufficient athletic ability; or a philanthropist, alas, insufficient finances.

Lucky for working people in North Carolina, Mike's Sunday school teacher, himself a former labor and employment law professor at UNC Chapel Hill, encouraged Mike to leave his life building high-rises and come home and go into law school.

For more info about Mike, read the Business North Carolina magazine profile in their January 2016 issue, out now.

Congratulations to our general counsel, Mike Okun!