Education

George Washington University School of Law, J.D., 1967

New York University, B.A., 1964

Bar & Court Admissions

North Carolina

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

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

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

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Supreme Court

Areas of Practice

Civil Rights & Constitutional Law

Medical Negligence

Personal & Catastrophic Injury

Awards & Honors

AV® Preeminent Rating from Martindale–Hubbell

Frank Porter Graham Award, North Carolina Civil Liberties Union, 1990

Tar Heel of the Week, Raleigh News & Observer, 1990

Walter Clark Award, North Carolina Advocates for Justice, 1998

Best Lawyers in America

Super Lawyers (2013-present)

Associations

Orange County Bar

North Carolina Advocates for Justice

Adam Stein (Retired)

Adam Stein joined Tin Fulton Walker & Owen in 2012. One of the founding partners of the nationally acclaimed law firm Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham & Sumter, Adam was a principal architect of that firm’s litigation strategy as it helped define and strengthen civil rights jurisprudence in North Carolina and across the country starting in the late 1960s.  Adam worked principally on voting rights while with Tin Fulton Walker & Owen and retired from the firm in 2020.

Adam has been long been recognized for his efforts to provide fair representation to all citizens, and has worked tirelessly to fight discrimination and promote fairness and equality in cases across the state. In 1980, he was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to establish the Office of Appellate Defender and served as North Carolina’s first Appellate Defender. Adam was the first chair of North Carolina’s Indigent Defense Services Commission and continues to serve on the commission. Adam was also a founding member of the Board of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.

Adam was elected to serve as a State Bar Councilor by the lawyers in his district. He is a former Board President of North State Legal Services, Inc. He is also a past president of the Orange County Bar and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, which honored him with its highest award, the Chief Justice Walter Clark Award. He also received the Frank Porter Graham award, the highest award of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Adam has been listed in editions of Best Lawyers of America for the past 20 years and has long maintained an AV® Preeminent rating from Martindale–Hubbell.

Over the years, Adam has taught trial advocacy courses at the University of North Carolina, with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in the United States and South Africa, and has served as a visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In addition to serving the legal community, Adam has dedicated himself to serving the community at large. Adam and his wife Jane received the Citizen Award of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association for developing Culbreth Park, a 50-home affordable housing project, near Southern Village in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Adam Stein and his wife Jane have 3 adult children and 8 grandchildren.

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