Given the high quality of the attorneys who have worked at the firm over the years, it is little surprise that many attorneys who have practiced with the firm have moved on to hold judicial, academic and political office. Judges include Charles Becton, who served for nine years on the North Carolina Court of Appeals; James Fuller, Jr served on the North Carolina Supreme Court; Yvonne Mims Evans and Karl Adkins, who became judges on the Superior Court bench; and Jim Lanning, Fred Hicks, and Rebecca Thorne Tin, who become state district court judges.

Former member Robert Belton served as a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, and John Nockleby is on the faculty at Loyola Law School.

In January of 1993, Melvin Watt left the firm to become a member of the United States Congress, where he currently leads the Congressional Black Caucus. Leslie Winner left the firm to become a member of the North Carolina State Senate. Ms. Winner led the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.