Dean, Ryan L.

Fred DeVore is a native Charlottean. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1975 and received a Masters Degree in Communication from Chapel Hill in 1977. After teaching in the College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for three years, he attended Wake Forest Law School, where he graduated in 1982. He passed the North Carolina State Bar the same year. While in law school, Fred was elected Chief Justice of the Wake Forest Moot Court and competed in various moot court competitions. For three years following law school, Fred taught business law at UNC-Charlotte while maintaining his law practice.
His early practice involved a wide range of cases, including capital murder trials and death penalty appeals. However, in the past fifteen years, Fred has limited his practice to civil litigation in the area of catastrophic injury, wrongful death, construction litigation, insurance bad faith, contract litigation and condemnation law. He has handled more than 40 appellate matters in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, North Carolina Supreme Court and the United States Fourth Circuit and is licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

Fred has been published in the Wake Forest and South Carolina Law Reviews. He has also written featured articles in several magazines, including Trial Brief, which is published by the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers. Fred is currently on the Litigation Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association. He is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education seminars on issues ranging from construction defects to insurance bad faith. He has previously been invited to speak as part of the faculty at the annual judges' school for North Carolina judges. He is the past vice-president of the Bobbitt Inns of Court, an organization dedicated to training young lawyers on trial techniques. He is currently the vice-chairman of the national Construction Defects Committee for the American Association of Justice and has lectured at the national convention of this recognized trial lawyers association. In 2008, Fred was selected as a Super Lawyer by a national organization that bestows the honor on only 5% of lawyers nationally. Fred has maintained an AV rating by Martindale Hubbell for over ten years. Martindale Hubbell is a national attorney reference and rating source and an AV rating indicates superior trial ability and the highest ethical rating possible.

Fred has tried or settled many matters in excess of a million dollars and in 2006, he and his partner, Troy Stafford, obtained a settlement of over ten million dollars for an injured client. Fred and his partner, Bill Acton, have practiced together for over 27 years. Bill has been certified by the state bar as a specialist in the area of workers compensation.

Fred's oldest child, Will DeVore, was in the inaugural class of Elon Law School and has joined the firm as an associate. Will and his wife, Jessica, have provided Fred with his first grandchild, Hartman DeVore. 

Fred’s daughter, Julie, lives in New  York City where she works backstage in various Broadway productions.  His youngest son, Stephen attends the University of Georgia.

Fred is a member of Matthews United Methodist Church, where he has taught adult Sunday School for over 29 years.

Three certified paralegals, Renee Robinson, Connie Hunter and Susie Baker, all assist Fred in his practice. All of whom have worked with him for more than ten years. Their commitment to each case endears them to our clients who appreciate their efficiency, knowledge and professionalism.