We are pleased to announce that Mary Aiken Barrow and Melissa Michaud have been inducted to the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Rising Stars inaugural class in 2019. Recognizing lawyers who graduated from law school within the last decade, Rising Stars seeks to introduce young lawyers who have gone beyond and above, both through prior careers that brought them to the law and through meteoric service and success during the first decade of law practice. Just 30 lawyers were recognized by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly Rising Stars in its inaugural class.

Mary Aiken Barrow is a self-competitive athlete whose drive is destined to take her career to places most lawyers could only hope to aspire to. She is the firm’s youngest family law partner. At just six years of practice, Ms. Barrow became a Board Certified Specialist in Family Law. She is a former Campbell Law School Mock Trial Team Coach, and served as the Wake County Bar Association Food Drive Firm Coordinator, the Wake County Bar Association Clothing Drive Firm Coordinator, the Triangle Associates Fund Drive for Legal Aid Firm Coordinator, and as a North Carolina Bar Association Family Forum Case Summary Contributor. She participates in the North Carolina Bar Association Professionalism for New Attorneys CLE as a Presenter and as a University of North Carolina School of Law Family Law Practice Seminar Guest Lecturer. Mary Aiken earned her law degree from Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in 2012 and holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Melissa Michaud earned her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2009 and holds an undergraduate in Political Science from Brown University in 2004. After graduating from Brown University, Melissa joined Teach for America and taught middle school in eastern North Carolina. After law school, Melissa clerked for the Honorable Louise W. Flanagan of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and then served as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities Section through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. At the Department of Justice, her practice focused on enforcing civil rights statutes, such as Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Americans with Disabilities Act, in the K-12 context. At Tharrington Smith, Melissa continues to practice education law and regularly advises school systems on personnel matters, investigations, and compliance issues, as well as in federal administrative investigations and in state and federal court litigation. Melissa is an active member in the Education Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, serving as a CLE presenter in 2014, CLE planning committee member in 2015-2016, Treasurer in 2016-2017, Secretary 2017-2018, and Vice Chair from 2018 to the present.

Please join us in celebrating these bright young lawyers.