Antitrust
CATHARINE BIGGS ARROWOOD Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Raleigh
I’d choose San Antonio. I have spent a great deal of time there. It is a wonderfully diverse and friendly place. And I have a family connection to San Antonio: Micajah Autry is an ancestor from the Sampson County area who died at the Alamo.Vita: Born Nov. 27, 1951, in Lumberton; bachelor’s and law degrees from Wake Forest University; one child. Why she chose this field: When I got out of law school in 1976, the only place that would hire me was the antitrust division of the N.C. Attorney General’s Office. What she’d be if not a lawyer: An opera singer. But I would have to have a vocal-cord transplant. When I was about 7, our Baptist choir director said I could remain in the choir so long as I stood there and moved my mouth with no sound coming out. Memorable case: A trial in federal court in Asheville regarding the loss of the cremated remains of a Florida man. We represented the man’s son against the Asheville funeral home that had been engaged to cremate and ship the remains to Florida for interment. The court allowed a Baptist minister to testify as an expert on grief. We recovered not only compensatory damages but punitive damages — much to the surprise of our experienced local counsel, who had assured us that we would recover not a penny. Passions: Opera, symphony, travel. Recent reading: Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw. Don’t ask her to: Put up with mean people.
