Parker Poe’s Chara O’Neale Selected for Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is pleased to announce that the Charlotte Business Journal has named Chara O’Neale among the 40 top business leaders under the age of 40 in the Charlotte region. A panel of judges selected O’Neale based on her professional accomplishments, her community involvement, and her overall impact on the region.
O’Neale is Parker Poe’s director of talent management and diversity & inclusion. She has worked tirelessly to improve diversity and inclusion at Parker Poe and in the broader legal community, including through her leadership on the Mecklenburg Bar Foundation’s board of directors. She has influenced dozens of minority students in the Carolinas by revamping THRIVE, Parker Poe’s daylong program to help minority students navigate law school and thrive as they pursue the different paths a legal career may take.
In addition, O’Neale is a driving force behind Parker Poe’s efforts to work for change in light of police killings of African Americans. Those efforts include centering the firm’s annual Community Service Day around organizations that are committed to furthering racial equality, pursuing pro bono cases representing individuals who have been arrested during peaceful protests, and counseling Black-owned businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
O’Neale has also made a concrete difference in the lives of children in the Charlotte region as a board member on the Council for Children’s Rights, one of the most comprehensive child advocacy and child legal services agencies in North Carolina. Additionally, she has been a leader of the firm’s partnership with Susan G. Komen Charlotte, a nonprofit working to meet the most critical needs related to breast cancer in the region.
The Charlotte Business Journal will recognize O’Neale and the other winners at its 27th annual 40 Under 40 Awards program held virtually on Thursday, October 8. She will also be profiled in the CBJ’s 40 Under 40 Special Report in October.
