Joshua "Josh" Stone

Matt Plyler works with lending institutions to achieve practical, business-oriented solutions in secured and unsecured financing transactions across a broad range of industries, including transportation, consumer retail, manufacturing, automotive, utilities, chemicals, agriculture and technology. Matt regularly represents lead arrangers, lenders and agent banks in syndicated credit facilities, club deals and single-bank financings used to finance strategic acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, rec...

A member of the Management Committee and co-head of the Corporate group, Joe Fernandez represents independent energy companies and private equity funds in power plant finance and M&A matters. He has served as project counsel to electric generating facilities located around the country. Joe represents traditional and renewable energy facilities in corporate finance and project finance transactions, in acquisitions and divestitures of project companies, in negotiating and drafting project c...

Mr. Ellsworth counsels clients to procure, protect, license and enforce intellectual property rights. Mr. Ellsworth works diligently to understand his client’s business and to leverage that understanding to achieve his client’s intellectual property goals in a turn-key and cost-efficient manner. Mr. Ellsworth manages extensive domestic and international patent portfolios for several publicly traded companies and provides strategic counseling to a variety of smaller business concer...

Brian Clarke is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Employment Law - Individuals and Litigation - Labor and Employment , based on an exhaustive peer-review by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area. Brian is an accomplished employment lawyer, professor, author, and former judge. He received his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, from Washington & Lee University School of Law in 1999 and his Bachelor of Arts in Hi...

Sonya Pfeiffer is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Civil Rights Law, Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Sonya practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina Best Lawyers has recognized Sonya Pfeiffer since 2026. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which Sonya Pfeiffer is held by other lawyers.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law, Bryan began practicing in the employment law and employee benefits areas, working for large law firms that concentrated in those areas. In 2001, Bryan returned to school at the Georgetown University Law Center and studied to receive an LL.M. in Taxation with a concentration in Employee Benefits, a field that includes retirement plans, health insurance plans, short- and long-term disability, life insurance and other similar ...

Elizabeth R. Gift is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Employment Law - Management and Litigation - Labor and Employment. Elizabeth R. practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina Best Lawyers has recognized Elizabeth R. Gift since 2022. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which Elizabeth R. Gift is held by other lawyers.

As head of the Global Services group, Mike Zeller provides his corporate transactional clients the accessibility, responsiveness, knowledge, and understanding of in-house counsel, coupled with the deep, full spectrum of the firm’s legal resources and cost- efficiencies. Mike gives his regional, national and international clients passionate, straightforward counsel in general corporate representation, mergers and acquisitions, franchising, inbound and outbound international trade. He rep...

Tony Lathrop is a seasoned corporate trial lawyer experienced in complex commercial litigation, transportation, land use, zoning/development, planning, and condemnation law. As a recognized leader within legal, transportation, and planning communities in North Carolina and nationwide, Tony brings valuable industry and governmental perspectives to client matters, which he approaches with an eye towards maximizing value and reducing future risk. Tony utilizes his experience as a trial attorney ...

John C. Gilson is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Banking and Finance Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law, Mergers and Acquisitions Law and Venture Capital Law. John C. practices law in Charlotte, North Carolina Best Lawyers has recognized John C. Gilson since 2024. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which John ...