About Alice
Alice Stubbs built a career that bridges courtroom work, judicial service and mediation. She studied economics and art history at University College in London after earning a B.A. in economics from Davidson College in 1989. She returned to the United States for law school and received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1992.
Her first post-law school role was as a clerk for Chief Judge James B. Wolfe Jr. at the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Middle District of North Carolina. That early exposure to complex financial issues shaped her approach to family and bankruptcy-related matters. In 1994 she entered private practice at Stubbs & Perdue, P.A. and three years later she accepted a judicial appointment to the Wake County District Court bench. Her tenure on the bench gave her front-line experience in family law and civil matters handled at the trial level.
After returning to private practice, Stubbs joined Tharrington Smith as a partner in 2006. Her practice combines trial work and alternative dispute resolution. She is admitted to practice in North Carolina and in federal courts across the state, including the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina, and she is also admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Stubbs holds board certification as a specialist in family law from the North Carolina Board of Legal Specialization and she is a certified family financial mediator through the Dispute Resolution Commission. Those credentials reflect an emphasis on the financial dimensions of divorce and custody disputes. She handles contested custody matters, complex equitable distribution claims and post-judgment enforcement proceedings. She also serves as a mediator in cases that involve significant financial issues.
Her involvement outside the courtroom includes longstanding roles in state and local bar groups and committees. She is a current member of the North Carolina State Bar, the Wake County Bar Association, the 10th Judicial District Bar and the family law section of the North Carolina Bar Association. She has served on the North Carolina Custody Mediation Advisory Committee from 2010 to 2013 and on the North Carolina Ethics Commission from 2006 to 2013. Earlier she was on the Litigation Section Council of the North Carolina Bar Association from 2001 to 2004. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Meredith College’s Paralegal School and is a member of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.
She practices at Tharrington Smith LLP, concentrating on family law, custody mediation and litigation that touches on financial and domestic relations issues.
