Raleigh, N.C. – Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that Catharine Biggs Arrowood is the inaugural recipient of the firm’s Women’s Achievement Award, which will be named after Catharine going forward.
“I am very honored by this – I am rarely speechless, but I am,” Catharine said after finding out about the award. “My hope is that this award will become an opportunity to celebrate outstanding women who have lived the idea of ‘lawyer as public servant.’ That is how I would define my role models, and that is the path I have tried to walk throughout my career.”
Catharine, retired of counsel in the firm’s Raleigh office, is a female pioneer in North Carolina’s legal community. She began her career being told “girls can’t try cases.” She went onto become a bet-the-company litigator, the first female partner at Parker Poe, and one of the first female chairs of an executive committee at a major law firm in the Southeast. She also has served as president of the North Carolina Bar Association and the Wake County Bar Association.
In 2017, Catharine received the Amicus Curiae Award from the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. It recognized her “outstanding service” to the state judicial branch as co-chair of the N.C. Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, which spent more than a year conducting a comprehensive review of North Carolina’s court system.
Catharine has also won The Advocate’s Award from the Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, which recognizes “members of the Litigation Section who are the ‘superstars’ of our profession.” She was selected as a member of the inaugural class of the North Carolina Lawyers Hall of Fame, sponsored by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly. And she has received a broad variety of honors from The Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, and other organizations.
In addition, Catharine serves as a member of the board of trustees of UNC Rex Healthcare and chairs the board of directors for DirectWomen, which works to increase representation of women lawyers on corporate boards. She also serves on the board of directors for TerraLex, one of the world’s leading international legal networks.
Beyond her accomplishments as an influential business and legal leader, Catharine is greatly involved in the community and an avid supporter of the arts. She has served as chair of the North Carolina Symphony Society's board of trustees and is currently on the North Carolina Symphony Foundation’s board of directors. She also serves on the board of the North Carolina Community Foundation.
Catharine was honored with Parker Poe’s inaugural Women’s Achievement Award during a virtual ceremony held during Women’s History Month. The ceremony included the chance for Parker Poe attorneys and staff to ask Catharine a variety of questions about her career, including what advice she has for young lawyers today.
About Parker Poe
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP has more than 225 lawyers in eight offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. The firm provides legal counsel to many of the largest companies and local governments in the Southeast.
Parker Poe is a member of two leading international legal networks: TerraLex and the Employment Law Alliance. TerraLex and the ELA have chosen Parker Poe to help guide clients through the challenges of global business.