Russell A. Brinson

Russ A. Brinson provides litigation and counseling services to a wide variety of individuals and business entities. He has established himself as a thought leader in his field and has written articles for construction magazines and has been asked to speak at various events on topics, such as employment law, non-compete agreements and construction defects.

The origins of my life, and eventually my career path, began with my roots in the small town of Kenansville in Eastern North Carolina. My mother was a public school teacher, and Dad owned the local drug store just like his father before him. Other than playing every possible sport, my brother and I spent a lot of time in Dad’s drug store. We started “working” there when I was around 8 years old. Now when I say working what I really mean is that we were in charge of making fountain drinks and milk shakes. But, mostly we were there to watch the Tar Heels play basketball or football with Dad.

While my brother and I “worked,” Dad really worked. Running a small business can be hard, and the days can often be long. A typical work week for him usually meant he went to work 6 days of the week and then he’d get a call from someone on his day off having an asthma attack, or suffering from a bee sting, at 8 am on Sunday morning before church and off to the drug store he would go. Whether an employee, or a neighbor, Dad believed part of being a small business owner was also being a part of your community.

During those days at the drug store, I witnessed the coffee crowd hang out every morning and late afternoon. Normally, the group consisted of local business people, people who worked at the courthouse next door, as well as lawyers and judges. Hearing about the cases and situations they encountered in court stuck with me and fascinated me.

After high school, I moved to Chapel Hill to attend the University of North Carolina. It was an honor to attend the school that my parents, grandfather, and great-grandfather attended. During my sophomore year, I was fortunate to get accepted into the Kenan Flagler School of Business. The stories I’d listened to so long ago were a part of me so, while there, I took Business Law. This had a profound impact on my studies and eventually led to applying for law school.

My law roots were planted at Wake Forest School of Law. While in law school, I gravitated toward classes and activities that involved mock trials, actual trials that we could do as students, and trial competitions. I loved the action in the courtroom, and to this day I still do. After law school, I wanted to get in the courtroom as soon as possible. I did not want to get stuck doing research projects. I was offered my first “real” job as an attorney doing criminal defense work. It was fast-paced and exciting. I had the chance to handle dozens of cases and go to trial at least 2 or 3 times a week. Concurrently, I also started handling personal injury cases.

While this experience was great and fundamental to my growth as an attorney, what I really wanted to practice was in the area of business litigation. Toward that goal, I began handling insurance litigation, medical malpractice defense, and a variety of business litigation disputes. Over time, I saw a need to extend my business litigation practice to also encompass employment litigation. This means I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of these cases: business owner, organization, and employee disputes, as well as understanding insurance litigation and handling personal injury cases.