BIO: Michael F. Anderson

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A graduate of Davidson College and the University of North Carolina School of Law, Mike's practice focuses on bringing solutions to families - and their businesses -  at any phase of a trust & estate matter.

As an estate-planner, Mike counsels clients on complex family- and financial-matters, helping clients structure their estate-plans in a manner that can bring certainty, with flexibility, to their loved ones -- encouraging clients to plan carefully, and allow their legacies to empower and enrich the lives of their children or other beneficiaries. Mike and his firm offer a program through the FOP Lodge #9 to offer highly discounted estate-planning services to the law enforcement heroes serving our community. Mike's estate-planning practices also deals regularly with estate-planning in situations that may potentially result in litigation, and the firm has established protocols to assist clients in maximizing the defensibility of their estate-planning decisions. Mike and the firm also have significant experience working with families that are afflicted by the disease of addiction, and in providing estate-planning and other solutions in such highly-nuanced situations.

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As a fiduciary litigator, Mike helps clients and their families navigate the uniquely challenging disputes that can arise among families. A tenacious and relentless advocate, Mike also helps clients litigate these delicate matters in a way that - whenever possible - can preserve and even restore the ties of family that sometimes strain with the aging, illness, or death of a loved one . . . and the disputes that can arise among families as they cope with this already stressful period. Mike has developed a reputation as one of the leading fiduciary litigation attorneys in North Carolina, representing fiduciaries (executors, trustees, agent acting under power of attorney, etc.) and beneficiaries in caveats (will contests), trust litigation matters, elder guardianships, power-of-attorney disputes, elder exploitation and undue influence matters, breach of fiduciary claims, professional malpractice, and disputes regarding end-of-life care.

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Oftentimes, Mike's relationship with clients extends into a broader area of practice, serving as outside general counsel to a number of small businesses in the Charlotte area. With a background in law enforcement and white-collar criminal defense, as well as experience as a commercial litigator at one of the world's largest law firms, Mike is able to counsel clients on a wide variety of issues and matters.

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Mike has been recognized by his peers and clients as a leader in this space. In 2015, Mike was inducted into the American Society of Legal Advocates and recognized as one of the "Top 40 Under 40" litigation attorneys in the State of North Carolina. Additional  Mike has served as the co-chair of the North Carolina Bar Association's Fiduciary Litigation Committee, and as Chair of the Mecklenburg County Bar's Estate Planning & Probate Section. And in 2018, Mike was selected to author the chapter on Guardianships for the North Carolina Fiduciary Litigation Manual.

Mike is rated by his peers as a Martindale-Hubbell AV-Preeminent® rated attorney, the highest rating available and reflecting “a testament to the fact that a lawyer’s peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.” In each year between 2013 and 2019, Mike was tabbed a “Rising Star” by North Carolina Super Lawyers magazine, an honor reserved for fewer than 2.5% of qualifying attorneys in the state; and in 2020-2024 (having aged out of the Rising Star category) Mike was rated as a Super Lawyer in that same publication; Mike has been recognized in the areas of Business Litigation, Estate Planning, and Trust & Estate Litigation. Mike was also recognized in 2014 among “Charlotte Area’s Outstanding Young Lawyers” in a Charlotte Magazine publication. In 2017, Mike was recognized as a "2017 Legal Leader - Elite Lawyers of the South" by The National Law Journal. In 2019, Mike was honored in Business North Carolina's Legal Elite in the area of litigation; and in the Legal Elite in the area of tax & estate planning in 2024.

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Mike is admitted to practice in North Carolina and Illinois, and has appeared in state and federal courts in both jurisdictions, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. Mike graduated cum laude with honors from Davidson College, where he was a William Holt Terry Leadership Scholar, and with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Law, where he attended on UNC’s Aycock Poe Law Scholarship and served as the Head Honors Writing Scholar at the Law School, and was awarded his section's Gressman-Pollitt Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy.

In recent years, Mike has contributed hundreds of hours of pro bono service, most of it as a court-appointed Guardian ad litem in elder incompetency matters and contested guardianships. In one such case, Mike committed more than one hundred hours service advocating on behalf of a persistent-vegetative-state patient in a dispute among loved ones over the removal of mechanical life sustaining measures.

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Outside the practice of law, Mike is a member of Charlotte's F3 Metro section (nicknamed "Razorback"). He is an avid fan of his hometown Chicago Cubs, coaches youth softball and baseball through the South Charlotte Rec Association, and enjoys playing Bar League softball with the (three-time-defending champion!) team from Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson.