Drew Erteschik

Biography

Clients trust Drew to take the lead on their most important matters, especially those with challenging legal issues. Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business has profiled his “highly acclaimed practice,” and he has been repeatedly recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, Benchmark Litigation, North Carolina Super Lawyers, and Business North Carolina’s “Legal Elite.”

In recent years, Drew has handled matters that included:

• obtaining a $114 million settlement in litigation on behalf of a minority shareholder in the North Carolina Business Court;
• achieving a no-liability result in defense of a lawsuit in the North Carolina Business Court seeking more than $150 million related to a series of real-estate transactions;
• representing the North Carolina Department of Revenue as co-counsel to the North Carolina Solicitor General in a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Supreme Court;
• winning the largest jury verdict ever obtained by a whistleblower under North Carolina’s Whistleblower Act;
• representing a bipartisan group of members of Congress as amici curiae before the U.S. Supreme Court;
• successfully challenging North Carolina’s beer-distribution laws on behalf of a coalition of craft breweries;
• securing the first appellate decision to establish that the North Carolina Constitution requires the State of North Carolina to preserve and protect its coastal fisheries;
• obtaining a significant settlement in a federal antitrust lawsuit on behalf of a statewide group of healthcare professionals and their patients; and
• obtaining a multimillion-dollar settlement for a corporate plaintiff in an intellectual property dispute with Garden & Gun Magazine.

Drew is frequently called upon to litigate cases that attract significant public interest. North Carolina’s largest state agencies, cities, and counties have retained him to handle some of their most sensitive and closely watched cases.  He also frequently represents private-sector clients whose business interests intersect with the government and its regulators.  On multiple occasions, he has won decisions striking down laws as unconstitutional.

Drew also devotes a substantial portion of his practice to protecting businesses in bet-the-company litigation.  His clients include Fortune 500 companies, regional businesses, trade associations, and other private institutions, and he frequently appears in the North Carolina Business Court.  In a wide variety of high-exposure cases, including class actions, he has won dismissals of lawsuits shortly after they were filed.  He also has significant experience handling qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act and other laws that encourage whistleblowers to report fraud.

Drew maintains both a trial practice and an appellate practice.  He has tried cases to successful verdicts in state court, federal court, the North Carolina Business Court, administrative agencies, and arbitration.  He is also a State Bar board-certified specialist in appellate practice, and he is frequently engaged to handle appeals before North Carolina’s state appellate courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  He has taught appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law, and he regularly speaks and writes on topics related to appellate practice.  He began his career clerking for Justice (later Chief Justice) Mark D. Martin of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Drew is active in the Bar.  He is a past chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee, which makes recommendations to the North Carolina Supreme Court on issues of appellate procedure.  He is also a past co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division Amicus Committee, which evaluates the potential for amicus participation by the ABA in cases involving the judiciary.  Two of North Carolina’s Chief Justices have separately appointed him to three-year terms on the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism.

Drew serves on a number of boards and commissions focused on improving the quality of justice in North Carolina.

Areas of Focus

Credentials