Education

University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D., 1990

Duke University, B.A., 1979

Bar & Court Admissions

North Carolina

U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Areas of Practice

Civil Rights & Constitutional Law

Employment & Labor

Medical Negligence

Personal & Catastrophic Injury

Awards & Honors

AV® Preeminent Rating from Martindale–Hubbell

Super Lawyers (2011-Present)

Best Lawyers in America (2014-Present)

Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite (2014)

Leader in the Law, NC Lawyers Weekly (2013)

ACLU of Charlotte, Richard L. Hester Civil Liberties Award (2016)

Davis Honor Society, UNC School of Law

Order of the Golden Fleece, UNC School of Law

Student Pro Bono Award, North Carolina State Bar

Best Lawyers Embargoed Awards
Civil Rights Law
Employment Law - Individuals
Litigation - Labor and Employment

Seminars

Day One in North Carolina: How General Synod of the UCC v. Reisinger Brought Marriage Equality to North Carolina, LGBT* in the South Conference (2015)

General Synod v. Reisinger, The Chief Justice William H. Bobbitt Inn of Court (2014)

Law Enforcement Misconduct: Real Cases, Real Issues, NC Advocates for Justice (2013)

Sovereign and Governmental Immunity, NC Advocates for Justice (2012)

Overview of State Law Involving Civil Actions Against Law Enforcement Officers, National Business Institute (2011)

Associations

Mecklenburg County Bar

North Carolina Advocates for Justice

North Carolina Bar Association

ACLU of North Carolina, Board & Legal Committee

North Carolina Justice Center, Board & Legal Committee

NCLEAF, Board President

S. Luke Largess

S. Luke Largess joined Tin Fulton Walker & Owen in 2009 after 18 years at Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham & Sumter. One of eight children in a Navy family, Luke graduated cum laude from Duke University and worked as a teacher, social worker, and carpenter before entering law school at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he graduated in 1990. While at Chapel Hill, Luke was inducted into the Davis Honor Society and the University’s Order of the Golden Fleece. Luke also served as an observer at the 1990 elections in Nicaragua.

Luke’s practice includes trial and appellate work in state and federal courts in employment, civil rights, including police misconduct, education, personal injury and medical negligence. He has secured large jury verdicts in Title VII retaliation and defamation lawsuits, as well as significant confidential settlements in police misconduct and medical malpractice cases. Luke represented the class of black families in Belk v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, the progeny of the historic Charlotte school desegregation case originally known as Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg Board of Education.

Luke has also represented many schoolteachers since 1990, including members of the North Carolina Association of Educators. In 2012 Luke represented a former teacher awarded over $1.1 million by a federal jury which found the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools violated his Due Process rights with regard to false allegations against him. Luke was quoted in the press as stating that the jury’s verdict should help “the school system to appreciate the personal pressure that people are under when they’re accused [of wrongdoing],” and stressed that teachers “should be supported and not just treated as the enemy.”

In 2014, Luke was one of the lead lawyers in General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Reisinger, which successfully overturned North Carolina’s ban against same-sex marriage. Click here to read the court order striking down North Carolina’s Amendment One.

S. Luke Largess is married to journalist Elizabeth Leland, a 10-time recipient of the Thomas Wolfe award for best N.C. news writing of the year. He has served on the board and legal committee of the ACLU of North Carolina and the North Carolina Justice Center, the Uptown Men’s Shelter, and North Carolina Community Sailing.

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