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Nichole Booker is a trial attorney whose primary focus is medical malpractice. She represents individuals who have been injured by doctors, hospitals and other health care providers. Her singular focus on the law as it relates to medical malpractice has served her clients well.

Nichole grew up in Western North Carolina, where she frequently visits family. She attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington as an undergraduate. She received her Bachelor of Arts in biology and her Masters of Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she received the Bruce M. Eberhart Award for academic excellence and research in the field of biology. She received her Juris Doctor from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in 2004 where she was a writer for the Campbell Law Observer, served as a Student Body Association representative, was an officer for Women in Law, and pioneered the Environmental Law Club. During law school Ms. Booker lobbied the North Carolina General Assembly on behalf of the Western North Carolina Alliance and was a clerk for a medical malpractice defense firm in New Bern, NC.

Prior to joining Mast, Mast, Johnson, Wells, & Trimyer, Nichole worked for several medical malpractice defense firms representing hospitals and doctors against medical malpractice claims. She now utilizes her experience as a defense lawyer to represent patients who have been injured by the negligence of medical professionals. Having represented clients on both sides of medical malpractice claims gives her a very unique perspective and is certainly an added advantage to her clients. Ms. Booker is a member of the Johnston County Bar Association, the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice (formerly the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers).

Nichole lives in Smithfield with her husband Brent who is a business owner in Apex, North Carolina. She has two fun and adventurous children, Grace and Mac. She and her family enjoy spending time at the beach and traveling. Nichole is an active member of First Presbyterian Church in Smithfield participating in community outreach programs such as Hospice and the JOCO Project. She also enjoys running and hiking.

Areas of Practice:

• General Civil Litigation
• Personal Injury
• Medical Malpractice
• Wrongful Death

Bar Admissions:

• North Carolina State Courts 2004
• U.S. District Courts for the Eastern District of North Carolina 2004

Education:

• Campbell University School of Law, Raleigh, North Carolina – Juris Doctor
• University of North Carolina, Greensboro-Masters of Education – Bachelor of Arts in Biology
• University of North Carolina, Wilmington – Undergraduate Studies

Professional Associations:

• North Carolina State Bar
• Johnston County Bar Association
• North Carolina Advocates for Justice

Charles Mast is the eldest of George Mast’s five children. He has three younger sisters, who live in Cary, Four Oaks and Wilmington, and had a younger brother who died of cancer at the age of seven. Charles was born at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in 1961, while George was in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corps. Charles’ mother was born in Boone, NC, and her grandfather was a doctor who lived and practiced medicine in what is now known as the Daniel Boone Inn family style restaurant. Charles never got the opportunity to grow up in the mountains like his parents did; instead, Charles landed in Smithfield, along with the remainder of his family, at the tender age of one. Charles grew up in Smithfield, was educated by the Johnston County school system, and graduated from Smithfield-Selma Senior High School in 1979. He went to Wake Forest University, where he jointly majored in both business and math. He also obtained his law degree from Wake Forest University in 1987 and has been and will continue to be a lifelong Demon Deacon.

Charles is married to his wonderful wife, Kathy, who teaches school at Four Oaks Elementary. Kathy is also a 1979 graduate of Smithfield-Selma High School. Ironically, Charles and Kathy did not know each other in high school and first met at their five-year high school reunion, after Kathy graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. They have lived in Smithfield since they were married in 1986. They have two children: Cameron, a 2013 graduate of Meredith College, and Taylor, a 2016 graduate of North Carolina State University.

Family and close friends are the most important things to Charles and Kathy. Charles loves the outdoors and everything that North Carolina has to offer, from hiking and riding horses in the mountains to enjoying our crystal coast. When he has time to relax, you will usually find him with his family and friends on the golf course or near the water.

Charles has over thirty years of experience representing people injured or killed in automobile accidents, at work, and as a result of medical negligence. He is a past President of the Johnston County Bar Association, as well as a member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the North Carolina Bar Association, and the North Carolina State Bar. He is a passionate advocate for individual rights and unwaveringly seeks justice for those individuals unfairly injured or wronged by others. He has been the managing partner of the Mast Law Firm since 1997.

 Areas of Practice:

• Major Accidents and Injuries
• Workers Compensation
• Medical Malpractice
• Wrongful Death

Education:

• Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1987 – J.D. – Doctor of Jurisprudence
• Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1983 – B.S. – Bachelor of Science in Business and Mathematics

Professional Associations and Memberships:

• Johnston County Bar Association – Past President
• North Carolina Bar Association – Litigation Section and Workers’ Compensation Section
• North Carolina Advocates for Justice – Workers’ Rights, Auto Torts and Professional Negligence Sections
• North Carolina State Bar

Board Memberships

• Board of Trustees, Baptist Retirement Homes of North Carolina
• Board of Directors, First Baptist Church of Smithfield Adult Respite Care (FBC-ARC, Inc.)

George grew up on a farm in western Watauga County on Mast Gap Road, which runs between Sugar Grove and Valle Crucis, on property which has been in the Mast Family since 1778. His parents, Dave and Grace Mast, who were educators in their early careers having graduated from the University of North Carolina and Meredith College, raised George and his three brothers, Pat, Mack and Bill on the farm. They basically lived off what they produced on the farm. Raising tobacco, beans, corn, white-faced cattle, chickens and hogs, they were able to subsist on what they produced.

There were many chores necessary to maintain the farm—milking the cows both morning and night, feeding the horses, cows and hogs. Summers were busy times pulling mullen, cutting thistles, and putting up hay and corn for the cows and horses in the winter. The mountains were prolific in apples, cherries (both white and black), strawberries, blackberries and mulberries. In that there was no method to freeze produce during the early years of George’s life, much of the food was canned during the summer to be used throughout the year. Apples and potatoes were stored in a cellar and the milk produced by the cows, both morning and night, was put in large steel cans in a spring house for consumption and sale.

Winters in the mountains were generally very cold with lots of snow. George and his brothers, Pat, Mack and Bill, were very active in sports. During the summer, they spent many hours after work swimming at the Watauga River or on the clay tennis court at Cove Creek. Swimming holes, tennis courts, school and church were the primary social venues for the Mast boys.

George was an all-tournament basketball player in the three counties of Avery, Ashe and Watauga his junior and senior years at Cove Creek High School, with his team winning all of the regular season games. After graduation from Cove Creek High School, George attended Wake Forest College when it was located in Wake Forest for two years, and then in Winston-Salem when it moved to Winston-Salem in 1956. After graduating from high school and entering Wake Forest College at Wake Forest, North Carolina, it was decided to combine college with law school. After three years, George entered Wake Forest Law School on what was known as the three and three career program—three years of undergraduate and three years of law school.

During law school, he returned to the mountains during the summers to work at Tweetsie Railroad. He was one of first five Indians to perform at Tweetsie Railroad, and at the same time, he was a janitor for the Horn in the West Production and an Indian dancer at Horn in the West.

In the late 1950s, while at law school, George was guided by several exciting and motivating professors, Dean Carroll W. Weathers, Robert E. Lee, James Sizemore, James A. Webster, and Norman Adrian Wiggins. Following graduation from law school, George entered the U.S. Army as an attorney in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. After attending the Judge Advocate General’s School in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the University of Virginia, George served at Fort Bragg and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he did extensive trial work in general courts-martial. In October in 1962, he completed his tour of duty with the U.S. Army as a Captain.

Having had extensive trial experience while in the military service, George entered the practice of law with Robert A. Spence in 1962 in Smithfield. During the 1960s while practicing in a small town, one did all types of work, and for several years George represented clients in criminal matters, estate planning, real estate transactions, and all types of litigation. Therefore, throughout George’s legal career, he has been engaged in almost all types of legal issues.

George has been substantially involved in community activities over the many years, having served as Chairman of the Department of Social Services and active in the Junior Chamber of Commerce; he has been actively involved in politics and started a local bank, Peoples National Bank, which eventually merged with BB&T, and he has been significantly involved in pro-bono matters with Legal Services and the North Carolina Bar Association. George has served in many capacities with the North Carolina Bar Association, serving as Chairman of the Litigation Section and President of the North Carolina Bar Association in 1990-1991. Early in his career, George was actively involved with the First Baptist Church of Smithfield, having served as a Deacon for sixteen years. Over the years, George has been an avid supporter of Wake Forest University and the Wake Forest University Law School, establishing the Carroll W. Weathers Scholarship for the Law School and the George B. Mast, Jr. Memorial Scholarship for Wake Forest University. George has served as a Trustee for Wake Forest University and is a Trustee Emeritus.

George enjoys both the beach and mountains, visiting both of those regularly on weekends or holidays. George is married to Gayle Fitz, formerly of Chadbourn, North Carolina, and has two children who are lawyers—Charles who practices with the Mast Firm, and Christa who is an Assistant District Attorney in New Hanover County. Much of George’s free time is spent with his five children and nine grandchildren in Smithfield, Wrightsville Beach, or the mountains.

George continues to be very actively involved in all types of legal representation, including estate planning, real estate transactions, and all types of civil litigation.

Areas of Practice:

• General Civil Litigation
• Business Consultation & Litigation
• Medical Malpractice
• Personal Injury
• Wrongful Death
• Real Estate
• Divorce & Family Law
• Wills, Estate Planning & Trusts

Education:

• Wake Forest University School of Law, Winston Salem, North Carolina
• Wake Forest University

Professional Associations and Memberships:

• North Carolina Bar Association
• Member
• North Carolina Bar Association
• Past President
• Wake Forest University
• Member, Board of Trustees

Past Employment Positions:

• US Army Judge Advocate General Corps, Captain

Pro Bono Activities:

• Johnston County, North Carolina Bar Association

Although Lily was born into the bustling big-city life of San Francisco, California, she enjoys her full share of local North Carolina food, culture, and southern hospitality. In fact, Lily spent the better part of her childhood growing up in the outskirts of Charlotte, North Carolina. During her teenage years in the Queen City, Lily received a phone call that her grandmother living in California had fallen ill with Alzheimer’s disease. Although she first found it humorous that her 85 year-old grandmother had nonchalantly rented out her doghouse to local homeless men, grandma’s health situation quickly became dire. In response, Lily and her father squeezed themselves into his Mini Cooper, and drove the 10-day journey across America and back, eventually bringing Grandma back to their home in North Carolina to live. It was this experience that first spurned Lily’s fascination with the enigmatic “Law,” as well as the urgent need for advocacy in today’s justice system.

After graduating from Northwest School of the Arts High School, Lily left her dream of becoming a professional ballerina behind and, instead, pursued an academic career in political science. As a recipient of the Lew and Edie Wasserman Scholarship, Lily was able to attend the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill for her Bachelor’s degree. In 2009, Lily proudly graduated with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science and as a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society. It was at North Carolina, where Lily met her hilarious and handsome husband John “Chad” Tuttle. As a son of a prominent attorney from Kannapolis, North Carolina, Marler Slate Tuttle Jr., Chad jokes that he vowed to never be an attorney, but to simply marry one instead. In December of 2013, he married his soon-to-be attorney fiancée in a small wedding in the French Quarter neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, from a balcony window overlooking the legendary Bourbon street.

While Lily attended North Carolina, she paid her bills by juggling several waitressing, bartending, and hospitality jobs, which left her with invaluable people skills. After a year of saving up for law school, however, Lily was overjoyed to leave her restaurant days behind when, in 2011, she was accepted to attend the Campbell University School of Law in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.

During law school, Lily was active in several student organizations including the Campbell Law Review, Campbell Moot Court Competition Teams, and the Campbell Law Innocence Project. Lily’s various obligations included her service as the Campbell Law Review’s Volume 36 Comments Editor and Solicitation Board Member, and as a staff member of Campbell Law’s Innocence Project, where she researched and presented assessments of innocence claims made by North Carolina prisoners serving time for wrongful felony convictions. After rivaling her way to the final round of the 2012 Richard A. Lord Intramural Moot Court Competition, finishing Second Place overall, she was invited to audition for Campbell’s Moot Court Competition Teams. In the spring of 2013, Lily traveled to Washington, D.C., for the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition Moot Court Competition, where she challenged teams across the country before federal judges and attorneys, and was awarded Campbell’s highest advocacy score. Later in the fall of 2013, Lily also traveled to Macon, Georgia, to compete in the National Legal Ethics & Professionalism Moot Court Competition, where she received two perfect oral advocacy scores, as well as Campbell’s highest advocacy score.

While studying at Campbell, Lily was also honored to receive “Book Awards” for several classes (the achievement of receiving the highest individual grade for the curriculum out of all fellow classmates), for Client Counseling, Professional Responsibility and Ethics, and Professional Skills in Writing. In May of 2014, Lily was commemorated at Campbell’s graduation with an Award for Excellence in Lawyering Skills and induction into the Old Kivett Advocacy Council, and an Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Campbell Law Review Volume 36. You may find Lily’s most recently published work in Campbell Law Review’s Volume 36 Symposium edition, titled: North Carolina’s Wary Reception of Drug Treatment Court: The Myth of Inherent Ethics Violations Within Its Structure, 35 CAMPBELL L. REV. 367 (2013).

In between the summer of her first and second years at law school, Lily worked for the Honorable Chief District Court Judge of Orange County Joseph Buckner, and Honorable District Court Judge of Orange County James Bryan. During this summer, Lily gained incredible legal experience by assisting Judge Bryan with a five-day non-parent custody proceeding, as well as enjoyed daily direct involvement with DSS, Domestic Violence, Drug Treatment and Family Treatment Court, under the supervision of Judge Buckner.

During the second summer of Lily’s law school career, she was fortunate enough to work as a legal intern at Mast Law Firm. Here, she participated as first chair in multiple civil and criminal bench trials, addressed the North Carolina Industrial Commission, presented oral motions for divorce proceedings, and represented clients daily in domestic violence, criminal, civil, and disposition court. She also learned the skills and techniques inherent in drafting successful legal documents, including complaints, discovery requests, motions pertaining to pre-trial and discovery issues, subpoenas, and exhibits for trial.

As Lily began her third and final year at Campbell Law School, she continued to work as a research assistant for the firm, in addition to embarking on an externship at the Wake County Public Defenders Office. Under the tutelage of respected Assistant Public Defender Carolyn Hair, she spent her time in the courtroom representing 20-50 criminal clients daily in Misdemeanor Criminal Court, Domestic Violence Court, and Superior Court, as well as occasionally defending clients against lifetime satellite-based monitoring. The diligent and demanding representation required of her externship included conducting one-on-one initial client meetings, individually interviewing clients, witnesses, and police officers during court sessions, as well as negotiating daily misdemeanor plea deals with Wake County Assistant District Attorneys.

Lily joined the firm after successfully passing the North Carolina Bar Exam in 2014. She is overjoyed to be working with such a genuine, well-respected, and hard-working group of people at Mast Law Firm. Armed with a solid foundation in legal writing and research, an extensive set of people skills, and a passion for litigating in the courtroom, Lily is excited to expand her field of practice. Lily looks forward to further exploring the areas of criminal, civil and family law litigation, where a strong legal foundation and interest already lies.

Lily and her husband Chad now reside in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. In her free time, Lily can be found playing golf with her husband, hiking, or enjoying all things deep-fried and southern at downtown Raleigh’s new local restaurants.

Areas of Practice

Civil Litigation

• Domestic and Family Law
• Restraining Orders
• Business Litigation
• Contract Disputes
• Appellate Work
• Personal Injury and Automobile Claims
• Trade Secrets Litigation
• Bar Complaints
• Medical Malpractice
• Will Disputes
• Insurance Disputes

Criminal Representation

• Misdemeanor Offenses
• Felony Offenses
• Traffic Tickets
• Driving While Impaired [DWI]
• Driving While License Revoked (DWLR)
• Domestic Violence Charges

Bar Admissions

• North Carolina, 2014
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, 2014

Education

Campbell University School of Law

• Juris Doctor
• Campbell Law Review, Volume 36 Comments Editor and Solicitation Board Member
• Campbell Law Innocence Project, Staff Member
• 2013 National Legal Ethics & Professionalism Moot Court Team: Two Perfect Oral Advocacy Scores
• 2013 ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition Moot Court Team
• 2012 Richard A. Lord Intramural Moot Court Competition: Second Place Finalist
• Book Awards: Client Counseling, Professional Responsibility and Ethics, and Professional Skills in Writing
• Award for Excellence in Lawyering Skills, Old Kivett Advocacy Council
• Award for Outstanding Achievement, Campbell Law Review Volume 36

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Bachelors of Arts, Political Science
• Pi Sigma Alpha National Political Science Honor Society, 2008-2009
• Lew and Edie Wasserman Scholarship Recipient, 2005

Professional Associations

• Wake County Bar Association
• Johnston County Bar Association
• North Carolina Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• Wake County Women’s Attorneys
• North Carolina Advocates for Justice
• Clayton Morning Rotary Club: Program Chair, 2014-2015

Publications

• North Carolina’s Wary Reception of Drug Treatment Court: The Myth of Inherent Ethics Violations Within Its Structure, 35 CAMPBELL L. REV. 367 (2013).