News

Knox takes helm of Van Winkle law firm

Caroline Knox

By Bill Moss, Published: February 12, 2016

The Van Winkle law firm, a 109-year-old Asheville-based firm with 38 attorneys, has reached into its smallest office to tap a new president.

Caroline Knox, an elder law specialist in Van Winkle’s Hendersonville office, was recently installed as the law firm’s president.
“Legal services are about more than just the law,” Knox, who becomes the first woman to lead the largest law firm west of Charlotte, said in a news release. “It’s about developing relationships with clients, helping them navigate important decisions and achieving their goals. You have to understand people’s stories, their ambitions and oftentimes their fears. It’s a personal connection regardless of whether the client is an individual or a business.”
The daughter of a career naval officer, Knox grew up all over before finishing high school in Arlington, Va., where she rowed on a varsity crew team that finished eighth in the nation. After spending two years at St. Mary’s College in Raleigh, she earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from William and Mary in 1992.
A fresh-out-of-college career woman, Knox decided where she wanted to be before she decided what she wanted to be. She took a job in the accounting and development office of the Kanuga Conference Center.
“I worked there several summers in college and that was my primary connection to the area,” she said. “I knew I wanted to live here and make some roots, having lived all over when I was growing up.”

Caught law bug

When she went to work for a Hendersonville attorney, she caught the law bug herself. She went back to school, earning a law degree from Wake Forest in 2000. Since then she’s been on a steady climb in the category of law that guides older people through everything from savings to health to end-of-life choices. She was in the first class of nine lawyers to be certified as specialist in Elder Law by the North Carolina State Bar and is one of only 18 lawyers in the state designated as a certified elder law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation.
As law firm president, she leads a seven-member board that runs the day-to-day operations of the firm, frames strategy and sets longer-term goals. In some law firms, the leadership role is described as the managing partner.
“Obviously our long-term vision is growth both locally and in our Charlotte office,” she said, “and we’re looking in the short term at client service and service delivery to be competitive in the new economy.”
She supports the work of a new “innovation committee,” which she likens to research and development shop charged with recommending enhanced services that the law firm can use to better serve current clients and grow its client base.
Knox, 45, succeeds Philip J. Smith, an Asheville attorney who led the firm for 12 years. The new role will take her to Asheville on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. She’ll continue her own robust practice of elder law, working in guardianships, estate planning, nursing home or assisted living placement and asset preservation.
“I often feel like I am a part of my client’s family, someone who cares deeply about their best interests,” she said in a profile the Van Winkle firm posted.
The mother of a 13-year-old daughter and boys ages 10 and 8, Knox is a runner who enjoys hunter pace horseback riding with her daughter and attending sporting events with her kids.