Stephanie Gumm

Biography

Stephanie Gumm brings strategic leadership, adaptability, and a mission-first mindset to complex commercial litigation in North Carolina’s state and federal courts. A U.S. Army veteran with eight years of active-duty service and three combat deployments, Stephanie draws on her experience leading high-stakes operations in some of the world’s most challenging environments to help clients navigate their most difficult legal disputes.

Stephanie began her military career as a Signal officer, deploying to Iraq to manage critical communications systems. She later transitioned to U.S. Army Special Operations as a Psychological Operations (PSYOP) officer and deployed to Pakistan, where she led sensitive strategic influence missions under the direction of the U.S. Ambassador and Special Operations Command Central. She was later selected for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command’s inaugural Cultural Support Team program and deployed to rural Afghanistan, where she worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces to recruit, train, and develop local security forces in support of counterinsurgency operations.

Today, Stephanie applies that same discipline, creativity, and determination to litigation. She represents businesses, governmental entities, educational institutions, and individuals in high-stakes disputes, from pre-suit strategy through trial and appeal. Her recent experience includes:

• Serving as lead trial counsel for an insurance agent defending breach-of-contract claims brought by a national brokerage, resulting in a jury verdict awarding only $1 in nominal damages;
• Serving as lead trial counsel for defendants in a jury trial involving competing business claims, obtaining favorable jury findings that resulted in judgment on their Chapter 75 counterclaims;
• Serving as second chair in a jury trial defending a municipality against multimillion-dollar stormwater damage claims, securing a directed verdict in the city’s favor;
• Serving as lead trial counsel in multiple high-stakes bench trials on behalf of county’s department of social services;
• Successfully arguing before the North Carolina Court of Appeals that collateral estoppel and applicable statutes of limitation barred claims against a municipality, resulting in an affirmance in part;
• Obtaining dismissal of emotional-distress claims in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in the court’s first application of U.S. Supreme Court precedent limiting Title IX remedies to contract damages;
• Securing dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction on behalf of a national association of private schools in a sensitive student-related matter;
• Negotiating a favorable settlement for a national property management company in litigation involving allegations that a guest contracted Legionnaires’ disease at a vacation rental;
• Negotiating a settlement on behalf of a television series creator that removed contractual restrictions and allowed the project to move forward;
• Securing the voluntary dismissal of a quiet title action involving property occupied by a $16 million elementary school;
• Successfully representing a local board of education in proceedings to remove an elected board member and later obtaining a superior court order affirming the board’s decision;
• Obtaining a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunctive relief on behalf of a county to prevent the operation of an unlicensed summer camp;
• Securing summary judgment, later affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a Fourteenth Amendment challenge to a jail mail policy;
• Drafting an amicus brief on behalf of the City of Nashville that was cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Bennett v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County;
• Obtaining orders compelling a trust protector to sit for deposition and produce two decades of records in a $300 million divorce dispute; and
• Serving as outside litigation counsel to an international commercial asset warranty conglomerate.

Areas of Focus

Credentials