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
It’s Not Over Till It’s Over
How Memphis attorney David Siegel learned to never give up on a caseDavid Siegel was sitting in his office, anxiously waiting for the chancery court in Memphis to rule on one of the most controversial cases of his life, when his 10-year-old daughter Stephanie called to tell him that the local television stations were about to announce the verdict. Stunned because no one had informed him of the decision, he cringed. Stephanie said softly, “I’m sorry, Daddy.” “I then knew we had lost, but I did not know how or why,” recalls Siegel, 50, a personal injury …
Oh, the Places She’s Been!
Mary Nold Larimore treads new ground in her law practice—and her outdoor adventuresDay after day, as she scaled the craggy slopes of the Alps, Mary Nold Larimore was glad for the rigorous training she’d endured back in the U.S. To prepare for the grueling Haute Route hike from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland, a few times a week, the adventurous Indianapolis attorney had descended the stairs from her 33rd-floor office at Ice Miller in OneAmerica Tower. Then she climbed the 35 flights to the top of the building and started all over again. When depositions took her …
The Baroness of Bankruptcy
Jan Hayden has confirmed bankruptcy plans for casinos, oil companies—and an alligator farmOne day when Jan Hayden was a child, her mother told her, “You really have to get your anger under control.” Three months later, Hayden’s mom complimented her daughter on her newfound ability to stay calm. “How are you doing it?” she asked. “When I get really mad I go into my room and bend coat hangers,” Hayden replied. “And then I unbend them.” Hayden’s mother grinned. “So that’s why all the coat hangers are coming apart.” Hayden uses the same technique today—just …
Paper Chase
Maura Abeln Smith oversees all things legal at International Paper Co.Maura Abeln Smith believes that if you fall off a horse, you should climb right back on. Literally. The accident happened in the fall of 2003, when Smith—an accomplished equestrian—was riding her horse and it bolted and spun, throwing her to the ground and breaking her back and wrist. This was six months after she had moved to Stamford, Conn., to start her job as senior vice president and general counsel for International Paper Co. After working from home for a month, Smith returned to her …
The Great Communicator
When Leo Bearman Jr. speaks, juries listenLeo Bearman Jr. had been practicing law with his dad for only a few months when Leo Bearman Sr., a larger-than-life icon in the Memphis legal community, handed him the case file for his first jury trial. “Thanks, Daddy, but do me a favor,” Bearman said. “If you’re there I’ll be worrying about how I should have asked a question or if you disapprove. So please don’t come to court.” “That’s fine. I’m tied up that day anyway,” the elder Bearman replied. “Just get the case …
Representing Monsanto
Adam Peck isn't afraid of controversial casesAdam Peck was a young partner at Birmingham's Lightfoot, Franklin & White in 1993 when he defended Monsanto, the biotechnology and former chemical giant, for the first time. The St. Louis, Mo., company was facing PCB contamination claims from property owners near Lake Logan Martin. "That was a pretty manageable situation," Peck, now 48, recalls. "I mean, it was a big complicated class action lawsuit, but it was fairly contained." Not so with Abernathy v. Monsanto, which ultimately prompted …
Fifth-Generation Lawyer
Joseph B. Cheshire V lives up to expectationsEver since March 2006, when an African-American exotic dancer accused three white Duke University lacrosse players of gang-raping her at an off-campus party in Raleigh, N.C., the case had consumed Joseph B. Cheshire V. But not even the painstakingly prepared Cheshire could have predicted the stunning turn of events on Dec. 15 of that year. Sitting in the packed courtroom, with his 23-year-old client David Evans right behind him, his colleague Brad Bannon next to him, and more than 100 reporters …
Bringing New Orleans Back
Kim Boyle defends her clients—and her hometownKim Boyle was sitting in a Louisiana State Bar Association board meeting on Saturday, August 27, 2005 when, she recalls, "our cell phones and our BlackBerrys started blowing up" with the news that Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. By Sunday morning, she and her parents had evacuated and driven to Houston. Still, she says, "Everything seemed like it was going to be fine. We just thought we'd be gone for two or three days like we were for Ivan [in September 2004]. It really …
Murderous Spouses, Media Frenzies and a Client Named Snake
Defense lawyer Leslie Ballin has seen it allLeslie Ballin flips open his cell phone and scrolls to a photo of three little girls at a family gathering. The caption beneath it reads: Having fun with cousins. "She sent it to me this weekend," he says. "She" is Mary Winkler, the petite, dark-haired client whose murder case catapulted Ballin into the national spotlight in 2006. Thanks to Ballin, a partner with Memphis' Ballin, Ballin & Fishman, and his colleague Steve Farese, Winkler is a free woman in spite of her admission that she …
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 …
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