William Robinson Heroy

Rob Heroy solves problems. Big problems. He believes that standing up to the Government provides his clients with the best possible results. He is aggressive and has significant trial experience in state and federal court. He left a prominent Charlotte law firm to join Goodman Carr as a partner in January of 2012. Prior to that, he served as an assistant district attorney in the Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office.

Rob represents clients in criminal matters in state and federal courts. He handles high-stakes criminal matters such as white collar criminal charges and investigations, often involving millions or billions of dollars, large-scale drug trafficking conspiracies, weapons violations, serious assaults, and homicides. He has tried dozens of jury trials and does not shy away from trying a case if it is necessary.

His work also frequently involves representing individuals and companies who are the subject of investigations who want to know their legal options and whether steps can be taken early on to protect themselves. In many cases, he has kept his clients from being charged, and their names from ever seeing a news reel.

His cases have been prominently featured in media including the New York Times, the BBC, L.A. Times, MSNBC, CNN, the Charlotte Observer, and others. He was recently recognized in a novel by a nationally recognized journalist for his assistance in contributing to the knowledge of prosecution of organized crime in the Charlotte area. He has represented international kingpins and provided commentary to the BBC for the El Chapo trial and Mexican politican Genaro Luna, as well as the New York Times.

He is experienced in state and federal criminal appeals, and in post-conviction relief. He has had success overturning decades-long sentences for clients. For example, he obtained reversal of a client’s 35-year sentence based on insufficient evidence of the client’s knowledge of criminal wrongdoing from the N.C Court of Appeals. In 2019, he obtained reversal of a synthetic drug conspiracy conviction based on improper venue. In 2018, he overturned a 50-year murder sentence based on the ineffective assistance of the client’s trial lawyer, and overturned another conviction on direct appeal where the client had not been properly advised of his rights to counsel. He obtained a 100-month sentence reduction on remand for another State client, and obtained a remand for resentencing from the Fourth Circuit for a 2-year reduction for another client. (read more). He has scores of other victories where cases have been overturned on appeal or when challenged in post-conviction proceedings.

He has a number of other exciting appellate challenges working their way through the courts including a habeas corpus challenge to the immigration detention policies in North Carolina, where the ACLU and Just Futures have joined the litigation, as well as a First Amendment challenge to our jury intimidation statute in which renowned legal blogger Eugene Volokh is arguing with Mr. Heroy. The last case involves the defense of an attorney where Rob is challenging her conviction based on arbitrary enforcement by federal law enforcement. In this case and dozens of other cases, he is the lawyer that lawyers call when they need assistance, either with criminal charges or investigations or with disciplinary proceedings.

Rob also litigates immigration matters in federal district court and federal courts of appeal. In some cases, he has obtained court orders compelling immigration to grant relief to individuals or release them from detention, and in others he has obtained relief by appealing arbitrary immigration decisions to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has presented at continuing legal educations seminars before other attorneys on the subject of immigration law and has been accepted as an expert witness in the area of immigration law in North Carolina Superior Court.
Business North Carolina Magazine selected Rob to the Legal Elite every year since 2010, an award in which Business North Carolina polls attorneys to vote for the top 3 percent of attorneys in their field. North Carolina Super Lawyers has recognized him on multiple occasions as a Rising Star in criminal defense. Martindale Hubbell has rated him as an AV Preeminent lawyer, their highest rating for legal ability. Martindale also lists him as having a 4.9 out of 5.0 client rating. He has a 10 out of 10 attorney rating on . He was selected to the Mecklenburg County Bar Leadership Institute in 2011.

Rob is the president of the Mecklenburg Country Criminal Defense Bar. He is on the Board of Directors for the Mecklenburg County Bar Foundation and an executive committee member. He previously taught advanced criminal law at the Charlotte School of Law. He also puts on the annual criminal law CLE for the North Carolina Bar Association. He has received pro bono awards and recognition over the last several years.

Outside of the law, he was a finalist in the 2010 World Series of Poker. He is married to Katie Heroy, and they have three little boys, Linus, Arthur, and Leo and love spending time in the North Carolina mountains. He is also the founding member of The Adventure Club, which explores the world and whose members are limited to Rob, Katie, Linus, Arthur, and Leo.