Ralph W. Meekins

Ralph W. Meekins was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a B.S. in psychology and physical education. He was a basketball manager for the UNC men’s basketball team who won a national championship in 1982 and served as head basketball manager in 1983 for the Tar Heels.

He graduated with distinction from Campbell Law School in 1986. At Campbell, he was an associate editor for the Law Review, President of the Moot Court Board, member of the National Moot Court Team, a recipient of a merit scholarship, and was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Fraternities.

Mr. Meekins began his law practice in Raleigh with the law firm of Young, Moore, Henderson P.A. and became a shareholder in the firm in 1991. He handled litigation throughout the state of North Carolina, primarily as a defense attorney representing businesses, physicians, and other professionals. He moved to Shelby, North Carolina in 1994 to establish the law firm of Teddy, Meekins & Talbert and concentrate his practice towards helping individuals in the areas of personal injury litigation and workers’ compensation. He is Board Certified in the area of Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and is also a Board Certified Mediator, having received his certification in 1994. He is an original member of the NC Academy of Superior Court Mediators, a group organized to attempt to recognize the most respected ADR practitioners. Mr. Meekins has been lead counsel in cases pending in over 60 counties in the state of North Carolina. He has written articles and lectured throughout North Carolina on topics including, but not limited to, premises liability, professional negligence, nursing home malpractice, professionalism, auto accident trials, and the proper evaluation of tort cases.

Mr. Meekins has been recognized by his peers each year since 2006 as a North Carolina Super Lawyer. Only five percent of the lawyers in North Carolina are honored and named as Super Lawyers. He has been recognized as a Top 100 Lawyer in the State of North Carolina by The American Trial Lawyer Association. Mr. Meekins is a member of theMillion Dollar Advocates Forum which is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements, an honor which fewer than one percent of U.S. lawyers have achieved. Mr. Meekins has also been recognized as an Outstanding attorney by America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals.

Mr. Meekins is a member of the board of trustees of the North Carolina Bar Association Health Benefit Trust. He served on the North Carolina Board of Governors for the North Carolina Bar Association for a full three year term, expiring in 2005. He had previously served as Chairman of the Litigation Section for the North Carolina Bar Association for the term ending in July 2001. He has also served as President of the Cleveland County Bar Association and is a member of the North Carolina and Cleveland County Bar Associations, the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, and is admitted to practice before the North Carolina Supreme Court and the United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts.

Mr. Meekins is the Past Chairman of the Board for the Cleveland County YMCA and is Past Chair of the Dover Foundation YMCA in Shelby. He has served on several other boards in Cleveland and Wake counties. He has been happily married to his wife Loann for over twenty-seven years and has two children.