Mona Lisa Wallace Featured in NC Lawyers Weekly's 2021 Power List

Thursday, September 16, 2021 | | Author: North Carolina Lawyers Weekly | Original Article

Mona Lisa Wallace was one of the first asbestos trial lawyers in the Southeast and has handled significant personal injury cases for over 40 years. With partners, Bill Graham and Whitney Wallace Williams, her firm, Wallace & Graham of Salisbury, has assisted thousands of individuals and families who suffer from both accident and occupationally related injuries and illnesses. Her firm has been involved in obtaining some of the largest recorded verdicts in the state. From approximately 1980 through 1992, Wallace was in court almost daily trying cases including civil personal injury. At the same time, she began handling occupational disease cases as that area of the law evolved. She tried one of the first asbestos cases in the Southeast and tried over 80 asbestos claims back-to-back involving a paper mill.Most recently, Wallace & Graham concluded its eight-year journey in North Carolina's swine farm nuisance litigation. Wallace represented hundreds of rural families suffering from flies, odor, pollutants, and other effects caused by industrialized factory farms. Her team won verdicts of more than $549 million. The verdict in the third trial, in which the jury awarded $473.5 million to six plaintiffs, is said to be the largest in North Carolina History. Smithfield announced the settlement of the litigation in November 2020. Mona and her team won the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year for their work in that case in 2020.Wallace & Graham also worked with co-counsel to obtain what is believed to be the largest wrongful death verdict in North Carolina history- $32.7 million in compensatory damages, affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in Finch v. Covil Corp."I believe my greatest accomplishment is the work my firm has done on improving the working conditions for employees in industrial facilities," Wallace said. "The court decisions and awards the firm has achieved have dramatically improved workplace safety and working conditions of thousands of individuals. By drawing attention to early screening and medical monitoring for the detection of cancers, the firm's work has helped workers get diagnostic treatment that has saved many lives."Mona and her husband, Lee, are also community philanthropists, supporting several institutions including the Wallace Cancer Center and the Wallace Educational Forum in Salisbury.