Emily Sherlock is a partner at Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson and is the Vice Chair of the Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Section of the NCBA. She will rise to the Chair position on July 1, 2020. Prior to serving on the board, Emily was one of the newsletter editors (back when our section had a newsletter) and served on the Section Council.

Emily is a native of New Port Richey, on the west coast of Florida, and grew up as an only child in a life outdoors—saltwater fishing, shooting guns, and hunting, and starting at age 6, riding horses. By the time she entered middle school, she gave up riding horses and got into team sports—volleyball, basketball, and track. As an adult, she still loves to hunt and fish, using her 7mm-08 Remington rifle to hunt deer and wild hogs on a 460-acre parcel along the Savannah River in Allendale County, South Carolina.

Emily attended the University of Florida, and in 2003, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration, with minors in zoology and economics. As an undergraduate, she was on their equestrian team as its captain. It was through that team that she met her future husband, Matt, who also rode horses on the school’s equestrian team and who is also an only child. She took a year and a half off after receiving her undergraduate degree and worked at Sprint in Leesburg, Florida before returning to the University of Florida in 2005 to attend law school. Emily graduated from law school in May 2008. She and Matt married in Florida in 2008, the day after the bar results came out.

Emily interviewed and had job offers from two law firms in Florida, but instead, she chose the offer from Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte, where she began working in September 2008, when Matt began law school at the Charlotte School of Law. Matt received his law degree in 2011 and works for The Law Offices of Geoffrey A. Planer in Gastonia, specializing in bankruptcy and family law. Emily is a partner at Robinson Bradshaw, which has a staff of 144 attorneys in offices in Charlotte, Chapel Hill, and Rock Hill. She describes her first year at Robinson Bradshaw as being a “free agent” in the firm’s development program for new attorneys, through which she met many of the firm’s attorneys. In her second year, she started doing environmental law with Bill Toole. Emily enjoys the outdoor activities at the firm’s annual retreat in Linville—trout fishing, sporting clays (she’s the captain of her shooting team), but skips the “usual” golf.

Emily has two daughters, Abby, age 7, and Madeline, age 3, both of whom she describes as “well-behaved,” as if the children of two attorneys could be otherwise. Abby attends Gaston Day School. Starting last June, Emily and Abby have started riding horses together after school on Mondays. It was the first time Emily had ridden a horse in 15 years, and she loves sharing the experience with Abby. During the recent months of homeschooling, Monday riding lessons became mother-daughter recess. Madeline can’t wait to join in when she’s a bit older. Matt says that Abby has graduated from a BB gun to a .22, as shooting and hunting have become a family affair. Emily and Matt lived in South Charlotte initially and have lived in Belmont since 2014.

June 18, 2020/by EnvironmentalLaw