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I grew up in Warsaw, New York, the county seat for a rural farming community outside of Buffalo. Warsaw is a small town where everyone invested a lot of time, interest and energy in the community, very similar to the towns in Orange and Chatham. Both of my parents were actively involved in many civic activities and non-profit programs and instilled in me a sense of responsibility to work hard and give back to my community.

 

I come from a large family. I have five brothers who taught me to be tough but fair, a good-listener, hearty eater and patient problem-solver. Helping take care of my brothers and raising two sons, Ben and Amos with my husband Jim, have fueled my life-long commitment to advocating for children.


I attended local schools in my hometown through the ninth grade and spent the last 3 years of high school at the Madeira School in Virginia where I graduated with honors in 1970. After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut in1974 with a BS degree in child psychology, I worked as a paralegal for a large law firm in Boston for several years. It was there that I developed my love of the legal profession and commitment to using the law as a means of helping people and promoting social justice.

I studied law at the University of Santa Clara where I served as associate editor of the law review, teaching assistant at the school’s law clinic and law clerk for the local Federal Public Defender. After graduating in 1981, I returned with my husband to his hometown, Chapel Hill, and earned my license to practice law in NC in August 1981. Less then a month later, I accepted District Attorney Wade Barber’s offer to serve Orange and Chatham counties as an assistant prosecutor.


From fall of 1981 until spring of 1984 I gained valuable trial experience prosecuting hundreds of felony and misdemeanor criminal cases in Orange County District and Superior Courts. I also learned the importance of protecting every citizen’s constitutional rights and civil liberties but at the same time working to keep our communities safe by holding offenders accountable for their crimes. I gave special attention to juvenile cases and helped develop protocols and treatment programs for juvenile offenders in our district.


After my children were born in 1984 and 1985, I worked with UNC’s Institute of Government (now the UNC School of Government) writing legal procedure manuals for District Attorneys, District Court Judges and Clerks of Court. The renowned faculty there taught me the value of legal scholarship and thoughtful legal analysis.


When my youngest son entered kindergarten, I entered private practice. I joined Wade Barber’s law firm in Pittsboro in 1991 and specialized in civil and criminal district court cases for 11 years. During that time, I handled every kind of legal case that is heard by a District Court Judge: criminal cases; traffic and DWI cases; civil divorce, alimony, property division, child custody and child support cases; domestic violence cases; hospital mental commitment hearings and juvenile delinquency, child abuse and child neglect cases.


I then went on to teach law students at UNC’s Juvenile Criminal Law Clinic. As Visiting Assistant Professor and Clinical Supervising Attorney for a year at UNC’s law school, I supervised certified third year law students responsible for defending juveniles charged with criminal offenses in Durham County District Court and I expanded the program into Orange County. I also taught a Criminal Lawyering Process and Procedure seminar focusing on juvenile delinquency law, developed a partnership with Duke Law School’s Education Law Clinic, organized a symposium of Durham agencies serving juveniles, and developed protocol for working with juvenile court counselors.

In 2005, I taught at Duke Law School’s Children’s Education Law Clinic. I supervised certified third year law students responsible for advising and representing children with special education and school discipline problems in 11 counties surrounding Durham and co-taught an Education Law seminar with Clinic Director, Jane Wettach. Since 2005, I have been a Guardian ad Litem advocate for children in high-conflict divorce cases and for abused and neglected children in DSS foster care proceedings.

My husband, Jim Vernon, was born in Chapel Hill. He is co-owner of Aventine, Inc, an architectural millwork and woodworking company in Carrboro. His mother Nancy Vernon, lives in Chapel Hill in the home Jim was raised in and is retired from working in UNC’s medical school. Jim’s father, Charlie Vernon, went to medical school at UNC, lives in Wrightsville Beach and recently retired from his psychiatry practice. The youngest of Jim’s four siblings, Patrick Vernon, works at UNC’s business school and lives in Chapel Hill with his wife Julie Russell and their beautiful daughter Susanna.

Jim and I were married in 1981, we lived in Chapel Hill for our first couple of years and then built a home in northern Chatham county where we raised our two boys, Ben and Amos. Both sons graduated with honors from Northwood Highschool in Pittsboro. Ben graduated with honors from UNC in 2006 and now lives and works in Boulder, CO. Amos is a senior at the University of California at Berkeley.

For over two decades, I’ve been actively involved in our community. I volunteered in the Chatham schools for over 12 years. I was a founding member of the Chatham Education Foundation, which raises funds for creative teaching grants for Chatham public school teachers. I’ve served on the boards of many community non-profit programs in both counties primarily benefiting women and children. I provide volunteer legal help to abused women, and I’m a volunteer mentor for needy children in our community