Professional Focus
Antitrust, Trade Regulation, and Unfair Business Practices
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has extensive practice in antitrust and trade regulation law, starting in 1977. Partner Noel Allen is one of North Carolina’s recognized authorities on antitrust and unfair trade practice law and currently serves as counsel for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. The firm provides legal counsel to seven state licensing boards, and firm members have chaired the North Carolina Bar Association’s sections on administrative, antitrust, and international law. The partners have written numerous papers and taught classes on antitrust, trade regulation, and consumer protection. Partner Noel Allen has written North Carolina Unfair Business Practice, which is in its third edition.
Immigration
The firm is recognized nationally as a leader in immigration and naturalization law. Partner John L. "Jack" Pinnix is among the leading authorities on immigration law and is a past national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (2002-2003). He lectures and writes frequently on immigration law. Partner Lynn Calder was associate editor of the Immigration Law Handbook of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is recognized as one of North Carolina’s leading authorities on deportation law. The firm has handled immigration cases for thousands of clients.
For over 30 years Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has assisted employers and families with complex immigration and naturalization matters. Clients include companies seeking to bring in skilled workers, individuals who want to explore their employment options or to reunite their families, and foreign students with a commitment to our land of opportunity and our democratic values.
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. attorneys are uniquely qualified to help American employers. America’s economic well-being depends on the services of skilled professionals and essential workers from around the world. Faced with backlogged or exhausted quotas, burdensome and conflicting regulations, and processing gridlock, both employers and workers rely on Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. to offer real world guidance, streamline processing, and identify viable alternatives.
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. handles matters before all immigration related agencies, including the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the U.S. Department of Labor, and Immigration Law Judges. Attorneys throughout the United States consult with Jack Pinnix and Lynn Calder regarding immigration litigation issues, and they refer the firm to their immigration trial and appellate work. Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. represents clients before the AAO, BIA, BALCA, and federal district and appellate courts.
Jack Pinnix was a founding member of the Carolinas Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and twice served as chapter chair. They have national leadership roles in AILA and the American Immigration Law Foundation and have chaired the Immigration and Naturalization Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Finance and Banking
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has a wide and deep experience with financial and banking institutions. A.P. Carlton, Jr. has served as counsel and a registered lobbyist for the North Carolina Bankers Association, has served as secretary and general counsel of a statewide and publicly held bank holding company, and in 1984, A.P. Carlton, Jr. became one of the first North Carolina lawyers in 50 years to serve as a nationally recognized bond counsel for North Carolina local government units. A past president (2002-2003) of the American Bar Association, A.P. Carlton, Jr. has over 25 years experience in advising publicly held, privately held, and large nonprofit corporations in governance, shareholder/member relations, and government regulation.
Nonprofit Institutions
A.P. Carlton, Jr. and Jack Nichols are recognized as leading practitioners of North Carolina nonprofit and foundation law. They were founding foundation counsel and remain counsel to the state’s largest and only state-wide community foundation (The North Carolina Community Foundation). Members frequently lecture on wide-ranging topics affecting nonprofit organizations such as governance, operations, and tax related aspects. The firm represents a vast array of nonprofit corporations, cooperatives and other eleemosynary institutions including charitable, health care, social service, religious, social and government support organizations.
Public-Private Partnerships
Through its multidisciplinary practice, Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has become a leader in the development of joint venture and partnership projects of all types between federal, state, and local governments and private enterprises. The firm’s practice reaches across corporate, real estate development and public finance law, nonprofit corporation law, public policy and government law, public and private labor and employment law, and antitrust and unfair trade practice law.
Examples of the broad spectrum of Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. ’s work include engagements as counsel for privately owned student housing projects for public universities and privately developed public schools for the state’s public school systems. It also is the lead counsel in the development of a regional multi-county water system, anchored by a partnership between Smithfield Foods and the Lower Cape Fear Water and Sewer Authority (in Tarheel, NC). This project will become eventually a $150 million regional, four-county, finished water system serving the largest pork production facility in the nation and over a dozen local government units. These private and public partners faced a state and federal edict to replace well-based systems that were depleting the region’s underground aquifer.
Labor and Employment
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. represents both employers and employees. For their employer clients, especially nonprofits, the firm has advised them on personnel manuals, employee training, sexual harassment prevention, contracts of employment, non-compete agreements, hiring and retention of immigrant employees, FMLA claims and other routine employer advice. The firm has represented employers in employee terminations, arbitration of employment disputes, unemployment compensation appeals, and NLRB and EEOC claims. As a result of representing state employees, Partner Jack Nichols has developed a practice of representing both public and private employees and has handled claims involving unjust dismissals, discrimination, wage and hour, ERISA, non-compete agreements, and whistle-blowing. Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has handled employment litigation in North Carolina courts across the state and also in federal courts of North Carolina in all three districts and before the Fourth Circuit.
Regulatory and Corporate Governance
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has a long history in the world of regulations and corporate governance. Partners Noel Allen and Jack Nichols are counsel to seven state occupational licensing boards. In addition, Mr. Nichols has represented clients before other licensing boards and agencies as well as the state Utilities, Banking, and Industrial Commissions. The firm has solved problems such as negotiating a $1 billion complex, 12-year computerized licensing exam contract. Partner A.P. Carlton, Jr. is North Carolina’s leading authority on nonprofit and financial institution corporate governance, and several firm members have lectured on the details of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Administrative Law
The firm has several partners with extensive practical experience in administrative law at the state and national level. Its members have appeared in over 100 hearings of the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings, and they have taught law courses on the subject. Partners have served in leadership offices including two who have served as Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section.
International Law
Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. has represented clients worldwide. Members helped establish and have chaired the North Carolina Bar Association’s International Law Section. Partner Noel Allen holds a graduate law diploma from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in International Competition Law. The firm belongs to the International Business Law Consortium and the Congress of International Law Fellows. Allen, Pinnix & Nichols, P.A. lawyers have assisted clients in matters throughout the world, from obtaining freedom for an imprisoned business client to conducting litigation discovery overseas to termination of foreign distributors.
