When Dick Ellis isn’t guiding clients through the complex legal system, he’s often navigating equally rough waters outside the courtroom. Ellis, a senior partner with Ellis & Winters in Raleigh, loves white-water and flat-water canoeing. A favorite spot to indulge in his hobby is the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. Several years ago, Ellis took a three-month sabbatical so he, his wife Evelyn and their two sons could work at an outdoor center, where Ellis served as raft guide. “Most of my colleagues went to Europe; I went to brave the rivers.”

Ellis and his wife also enjoy taking road trips in their two-seater sports car. Their cardinal rule? Take only back roads. “The whole point is to get off the highways,” Ellis says. “You see many parts of the country that most people don’t see.” He loves meeting new people on these journeys—and his Southern accent is a trusty ice-breaker. “It seems like as soon as you get out of North Carolina, folks hear you talk and always ask where you’re from, and you go from there.”

Ellis’ litigation expertise includes business and commercial disputes, medical malpractice and product liability litigation. His background also includes concentrations in antitrust and trade regulation, media and communications law, and representation of public-interest clients.