Ken Lewis highlighted in "Dynamic diversity: The changing look of N.C. executive power"

PDF

Nexsen Pruet's Ken Lewis, a busines attorney in the firm's Raleigh office, was profiled for Business North Carolina's article "Dynamic diversity: The changing look of N.C. executive power."

The magazine developed a list of people in powerful positions throughout North Carolina's business and professional communities by asking for suggestions from various sources and reporting form their editorial team. While black executives dominate the list, they also included Asian and Hispanic leaders. 

Excerpt

Lewis, 59, has been a trailblazer in the North Carolina legal community. After earning a bachelor’s at Duke University and graduating from Harvard Law School, he worked as a law clerk for Associate Justice Henry E. Frye of the N.C. Supreme Court. He was hired in 1987 as the first Black lawyer at Charlotte’s Moore & Van Allen, the state’s largest law firm. He later co-founded his own firm and worked for another big N.C. firm before joining Nexsen Pruet in 2014. The firm has more than 180 attorneys at eight offices in the Carolinas. Lewis has worked with companies in various industries such as financial services, health care, insurance, manufacturing and technology.

Highlighting women and people of color in his profession is a priority for Lewis, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate in 2010. “[I am] assuring that highly skilled diverse and female attorneys receive their fair share of opportunities to display their brilliance and value-add in serving clients,” he says, “and contributing their perspective and experience to complex problem-solving.”

In a December Triangle Business Journal column, Lewis urged N.C. businesses and citizens to do an “economic apartheid audit” to assess whether they are using Black professionals or supporting Black-owned businesses. “How can Black people achieve significant economic progress if those with 10 times their wealth fail to do business with them?” Lewis wrote.

To read the full list from Business NC, click here.

Nexsen Pruet serves clients from nine offices across the Southeast. With more than 200 lawyers and professionals, the firm provides regional, full service capabilities with international strengths.