Graves, Cheryl L.

Simply put, Neil is a dedicated trial lawyer who achieves outstanding results for his clients. Experience, hard work and guts are often the crucial determining factors between the mediocre case and the compelling case. Neil’s inherent tenacity and his extensive work history have combined to produce the know-how, skill and experience that empower him to successfully navigate the myriad issues that arise in trial work and achieve the optimal result.

Neil is a lifelong native of North Carolina, and grew up in Shelby, North Carolina. Upon graduation from high school, Neil went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he lettered while playing football for four years, was a James M. Johnston Scholar, was inducted into the Phi Eta Sigma honorary society his freshman year, was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society his junior year, as well as the Psi Chi psychology honorary society, and also served as a judge on the undergraduate honor court. In 1980, Neil received the Atlantic Coast Conference Award for Excellence in Scholarship & Athletics, and was graduated from the University with highest honors.

Upon graduating from college, Neil was awarded a Kenan Scholarship to the University of North Carolina School of Law. While in law school, he served as a member of the North Carolina Law Review and on the Board of Editors of the North Carolina Law Review, as well as serving as an Instructor in Legal Writing and Research.

In 1983, Neil began his legal career with the then medium-sized law firm of Farris Mallard Cummings & Booe, P.A., where the relatively smaller size of the firm provided Neil the opportunity of immediate, hands-on experience in preparing and trying cases of many different types. Several years later the firm merged with another firm to form Petree Stockton, LLP, one of the largest law firms in North Carolina. At that firm Neil put his early-acquired and honed skills as a trial lawyer to work on behalf of larger, corporate clients. First as an associate and later as a partner in the firm, Neil established a reputation for achieving maximum results in complex cases, representing some of the largest corporations and insurance companies in the country. This reputation was earned by hard work, extensive investigation and detailed preparation, aggressive advocacy and the willingness and confidence to try the case out to a jury, rather than settle for some lukewarm, nickels-on-the-dollar resolution of the matter.

The year of 1997 proved to be a watershed year in Neil’s legal career. In that year the firm merged again to form Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, one of the largest law firms in the country. More importantly, also that year, on behalf of a small, family-owned company client of his whose business had been ruined by the actions and inactions of a multi-national conglomerate, Neil tried one of the longest, continuously-tried civil jury trials in the history of North Carolina (3\+ months), and obtained (and collected on) one of the largest unfair trade practices verdicts and judgments ever entered in the state. Although he had represented some individuals and small companies in the past, the trial of that case imbued in Neil a vision of establishing a law practice devoted to bringing big-firm know-how and expertise to bear to obtain outstanding results on behalf of individuals and companies who simply cannot afford the enormous costs involved in hiring a big law firm.

In early 1999, Neil’s vision was realized when he left his former firm to establish Robinson Law Office. Since that time Neil has brought his many years of big-firm experience to bear to achieve extraordinary results on behalf of individuals and businesses severely injured or wronged in various ways, many times by the same type of large corporate Goliath that Neil used to represent. In that regard, Neil’s insight into the behind-the-curtain thinking and doings of the large corporation or insurance company has proved invaluable to his clients. These outstanding results have been obtained in cases ranging from catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death to premises liability (inadequate security) to last will and testament lawsuits to products liability matters to unfair business practices cases.

Neil is one of the elite few non-big firm lawyers in this area to be accorded the prestigious AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell, wherein the “A” signifies legal ability of the highest level, and the “V” means adherence to the highest professional standards of conduct, ethics, reliability and diligence. Importantly, this rating is based upon a peer review survey of the confidential opinions of practicing attorneys and judges throughout the region. Similarly, Neil is listed among the elite in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in the country.

When he is not fighting to the last ditch on behalf of his clients, Neil enjoys an active life outside his practice. He is an avid horseman and outdoorsman, and lives with his wife and their five children on a small horse farm in Union County, North Carolina.