Michael W. Drye

I served as Assistant County Attorney for Buncombe County, North Carolina from 1976 to 1979, and handled a pleathora of legal matters.  I entered private practice with an Ashevile, NC firm in 1979 and became a partner in Brock, Begley & Drye in 1980. Between 1979 and 1993, i engaged in the general practice of law and handled matters pertaining to personal injury, products liability, business law, social security disability, workmens' compensation, minor criminal defense, wills and probate, and family law.

in 1993, I became board certified in family law in North Carolina.  Between 1993 and approximately 2000, my practice was primarly devoted to family law cases. Beginning approximately in 2001, I began mediating cases, primarily family law cases involving equitable distribution, alimony, child custody and child support. After becoming certified in Family Law mediation in 2003, the number of cases I mediated began to substantially increase. I became certified in Superior Court mediations in 2005, and have successfully mediated Superior Court cases, although the majority of cases I mediate have continued to be in the area of Family Law.

I have been recertified as a Board Certified Family Law Specialist in North Carolina in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019.  I served on the North Carolina Family Law Specialist Committee from 2007 to 2013.  I served on the North Carolina Continuing Legal Education committee from 2014 to 2017.

From approximately 2003 until approximately 2014, my practice was fairly equally divided between mediating and litigating, although a substantial number of the litigation cases settled without trial.  The amount of time I spend between mediating and litigating has ebbed and flowed since 2015, substantially attributable to economic factors and the substantial increase in mediators in my area.  The majority of cases I mediate involve pending litigation but a strong plurality involve cases in which no legal action is pending and where the parties hope to avoid litigation and view ADR as a much more viable alternative. I have mediated numerous cases with multiple counsel, CPAs and other experts present, along with the parties, and I have mediated a growing significant number of cases with just the parties present. I am totally comfortable in either setting.

Since approximately 2000, I have successfully mediated approximately 1000 cases, some involving complex issues regarding business valuations and multiple corporations and LLCs and other complicated financial issues.

I have been continuously listed in Best Lawyers in America as a family law practitioner since 2007 and dually listed as both a family law practitioner and a family law mediator since 2008, being one of only a handful of North Carolina lawyers to have this latter distinction.  I have been selected by my peers, and hence, listed in Best Lawyers in America as "Attorney of the Year in Family Law" in Asheville, NC, for 2022.  I have been continuously listed in North Carolina Super Lawyers as a family law practitioner since 2007.

• B.A., With Honors in Political Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 1973
• J.D., Wake Forest University, 1976

• North Carolina State Bar (Member, Family Law Specialty Committee, 2006 to 2012)
• North Carolina Bar Association (Member, Dispute Resolution Section, Family Law Section, Litigation Section, GP Small Firm Section)
• Twenty-Eighth Judicial District Bar (Member, Executive Committee, 2008 to 2013)
• American Bar Association, Member, Dispute Resolution Section

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