She leads N.C. lawyers toward new image

Even while working as a full-time personal injury lawyer, raising four boys, serving as a PTSA president, owning part of a thriving music shop, training court-appointed mediators, raising money for the local public radio station and serving -- energetically, by all accounts -- on boards for various political and professional groups, Margaret "Peggy" Abrams somehow manages to make her own clothes.

Abrams is bringing an uncanny ability to juggle many tasks and a reputation for somehow mixing gentleness with toughness to her new post as president of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers.

It is a watershed year for the academy, which has more than 4,000 members across the state. It plans to change its name Oct. 1 to N.C. Advocates for Justice, and focus on redefining its image, emphasizing its members' efforts on behalf of the public.

"We're not just going to change the name, but we're also capitalizing on that opportunity to put a more public face on what we do," she said.

Among other things, the group lobbies the legislature to improve the justice system, pressing for what it regards as reform on such issues as workers' compensation and better funding for the justice system.

Its goals this year, Abrams said, include pushing for changes to the state's contributory negligence statute.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states that bar plaintiffs from collecting damages if they played any role, no matter how small, in their injury. Nationally, the standard approach is to allow an award, but reduce it by the extent to which the plaintiff's negligence contributed.

Abrams succeeds Joseph B. Cheshire V, who is among the state's best-known lawyers. She hadn't sought election to the job, but Cheshire said he was among many who wanted her to take it.

"Peggy is kind of an unknown jewel of North Carolina, just one of the hardest-working, but most self-effacing, people I've ever known," Cheshire said. "She's held almost every leadership position you can in the academy, and every time just done a fabulous job of it, and just never says no to work."

He said what drives her is not seeking attention for herself, but taking an unwavering interest in what's right.

Her ability to tackle an implausible number of tasks at once and succeed will be crucial as the group seeks to re-brand itself, Cheshire said.

A family of lawyers

Abrams, 53, was raised in a New Jersey family that could scarcely have contained more lawyers. Both grandfathers practiced law, as did several uncles and her father. Her mother was accepted at law school, too, but Abrams' father persuaded her not to go.

Today, her brother owns the practice their father had run. The family tradition seems destined to continue: Her oldest son graduated from law school at the University of Georgia, and the second-oldest is about to begin studying law at Georgetown University.

Originally Abrams had no interest in a law career. She wanted to be a doctor until she was a few years into studying biology at Wake Forest University. But after taking classes in political science and learning how the justice system protects individuals and their freedom, she became intrigued by the law.

She met her future husband, Doug Abrams, at Wake Forest, where he was also a student and played in a rock band. Because he graduated from law school a year ahead of her and got a job in Raleigh, they moved to Cary and she studied at Duke for her last year of law school.

It turns out that those years studying science weren't wasted. The training helped greatly, she said, because their cases involve injuries and medical issues, and even sciences such as chemistry and physics.