Colleen Byers concentrates her practice in the areas of guardianship, trust, estate and fiduciary litigation, employment matters, and alternative dispute resolution.
Colleen began practicing law in 2008 with Bell, Davis & Pitt shortly after moving to Winston-Salem. She has experience handling a wide range of disputes. Colleen regularly represents individuals, families, small businesses, corporations, and non-profit organizations in contract, employment, corporate, professional negligence, estate, trust, guardianship, and fiduciary disputes. Colleen has experience with:
- Collaborative law, including:
- Estate family law
- Trusts and estates
- Business divorce
- Dissolution of family owned business
- Mediation
- Fiduciary litigation arising out of disputes involving trusts, estates or abuses of powers of attorney
- Representing individuals in incompetency and guardianship proceedings
- Contested estate proceedings and special proceedings before the Clerk of Court
- Will caveats
- Contested elective share claims
- Cases involving trade secrets, confidentiality, non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
- Employment contract review
- Professional malpractice avoidance and defense
She has represented parties in cases pending in federal and state courts of North Carolina, including the North Carolina Business Court. After about a decade in practice, Colleen became trained in the Civil Collaborative Law process in order to assist her clients with crafting resolutions of their disputes in an empowering and respectful way. Colleen actively advocates for the adoption of collaborative law in North Carolina. She recently served as a featured guest on a Business North Carolina podcast about the recently passed Uniform Collaborative Law Act.
When she is not representing one of the parties, Colleen is privileged to serve as a neutral facilitator where she provides a space for parties to resolve their conflicts through mediation as a Superior Court Mediator, certified by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. Colleen is also certified by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission in the Clerk Mediation Program, which allows her to mediate estate, guardianship and other matters pending before the Clerk of Court.
Colleen has a passion for serving her community and advancing the profession. She has served on the advisory board of the Chamber of Commerce’s Winston < 40 and the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Colleen has proudly served as president of the board of directors of the Forsyth Humane Society and president of the Forsyth County Women Attorneys Association.
Colleen regularly speaks at Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars about the connection between mindfulness and effective lawyering. She was also recently interviewed on The Human Lawyer podcast on the topic.
Colleen enjoys yoga, running, hiking and spending time with her husband, Sean, and their daughters. Colleen is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT 200) and enjoys sharing the benefits of yoga with others. Colleen gratefully counts her blessings each day.
