About Nancy Henderson
Nancy Henderson is an award-winning journalist who has published hundreds of articles in Smithsonian, The New York Times, Parade, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. The author of Sewing Hope and Able! How One Company’s Extraordinary Workforce Changed the Way We Look at Disability Today, she enjoys breaking stereotypes and often writes about people who are making a difference through their work. Over the years, she’s enjoyed listening to family stories about her grandfather, who prosecuted cases as a solicitor general in North Carolina long before she was born.
Articles written by Nancy Henderson
The Coal Miner's Son
Low-key energy lawyer Bruce Cryder is a giant in his fieldFor most people, an eight-day sojourn in a cramped scientific outpost in the middle of the desert would not be the ideal vacation. But for Lexington attorney and avid birdwatcher Bruce Cryder, last year's trip to the Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Arizona offered a chance to spot the red-faced warbler and the elegant trogon, a striking bird with a metallic green head and scarlet belly. "We did bird watching every day from before dawn till late at night in all types of climates, from the …
For the People
Jere Beasley has wrangled some of the state's biggest settlements and forced corporate giants to change their waysFor five long days in September 1993, Jere Beasley argued a strong case in a wrongful-death suit against Kubota, a tractor manufacturer. He uncovered internal documents in which company officials estimated how many people would be killed each year on Kubota equipment and what it would cost to settle the inevitable lawsuits. Kubota's former safety official testified against the corporation. An important defense witness fumbled on the stand. Now Kubota was offering Beasley's client $10 million. …
Master of Mediation
John Trimble has earned his reputation as one of the state’s top negotiatorsSometimes the smallest case can be the toughest. John C. Trimble was mediating a nasty feud between neighbors—an older couple and a younger one with a son in high school—who had gotten along well until the elder gentleman retired and began spending most of his time at home. Before long, the man grew so annoyed with the teenager, who often peeled out of the driveway or played loud music while shooting hoops, that he erected a fence along the boundary line. But there was one problem: He built …
The Born Communicator
From picking cotton to tackling some of the nation’s toughest class action suits, W. James Singleton isn’t afraid of hard work. And he’s never at a loss for wordsFor W. James Singleton, the challenge was just too tempting to pass up. In 1994, at the invitation of New Orleans trial lawyer Wendell Gauthier, he joined the 60-firm trial team that brought the nation’s first class action suit against Big Tobacco. “One of [Gauthier’s] close friends died as a result of cigarette smoking. That friend was named [Peter] Castano,” says Singleton, 58, the managing partner of The Singleton Law Firm in Shreveport. “I bought into it because I knew it was …
Prince the Peacemaker
Prince Chambliss has spent his career breaking barriersIn the morning of Sept. 15, 1963, 15-year-old Prince Chambliss was sitting in Sunday school class in downtown Birmingham, Ala., when he heard a bomb explode. Running outside, he spotted a cloud of smoke rising from the 16th Street Baptist Church, a launching point for marches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights organizations and students. Chambliss raced the five blocks to the site of the explosion. “It couldn’t have taken that long to run from my church to this one,” recalls …
The Relentless Crusader
Ann Oldfather is fiercely loyal—just ask her clientsAnn Oldfather is a careful planner. Preparation, she says, cures “any other failing, including inarticulateness, nerves and a bad hair day.” But her greatest moments often come unexpected. Take Giuliani v. Guiler, a groundbreaking 1997 case in which the Louisville attorney argued before the Kentucky Supreme Court that minor children should be entitled to parental consortium––the love and care of a parent for a child. “Up until then,” says the founder of the Oldfather Law Firm, “if …
The Compassionate Counsel
Mark Ladendorf thought he had seen everything. In more than two decades of handling personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability and wrongful death cases, the charismatic Indianapolis attorney had represented young men scarred in motorcycle accidents, children who were severely burned and families whose mothers and daughters had died in car wrecks. He had even negotiated one of the state’s largest settlements in a flammable fabrics lawsuit filed on behalf of a 5-year-old …
The Perfect Gentleman
For Henry Alsobrook Jr., imagination is everything. That, and fine wineIt was the kind of big break most young attorneys only dream about. New Orleans native Henry B. Alsobrook Jr. had been practicing for less than a year when one day St. Clair Adams Jr., his boss at Adams & Reese, introduced him to a new client. The man told of how he and his sister had inherited their father’s tobacco company stock, which over the years had split several times and grown into a sizable sum. There was only one problem: The stock certificates were missing, and so …
The Man Who Prosecuted Jimmy Hoffa and Defended Exxon
At 77, James Neal, a cigar-chewing, gravelly voiced attorney nicknamed “The Bantam Rooster,” has a heck of a lot to crow about. Exhibit A: The impressive wall of photos in his Neal & Harwell office overlooking Nashville’s downtown riverfront. In this one, a television reporter interviews a young Neal during his prosecution of Jimmy Hoffa. In that one, a pensive Neal, chin in hand, confers with Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In another, Neal flashes an uncharacteristically broad …
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