Susan J. Ryan and Rebecca L. Smitherman have both been named among North Carolina’s Rising Stars for 2014. The Rising Star selection process is a comprehensive, good-faith and detailed attempt to produce a list of lawyers that have attained high peer recognition, meet ethical standards, and have demonstrated some degree of achievement in their field but includes criteria that a candidate must be either 40 years old or younger or in practice for ten years for less. No more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the State are selected for inclusion in Rising Stars.