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
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 …
Find top lawyers with confidence
The Super Lawyers patented selection process is peer influenced and research driven, selecting the top 5% of attorneys to the Super Lawyers lists each year. We know lawyers and make it easy to connect with them.
Find a lawyer near you