Making a difference

NCAJ president works to build community

After experiencing discrimination at her local library, 14-year-old Valerie Johnson wandered across the street into the Vance County Courthouse.

She sat in shock as she watched the same inequality repeated.

“I saw a case going on that I thought was ridiculous,” Johnson says. “That couldn’t be justice. A man was being tried for stealing one can of food from the local supermarket. I thought, ‘How can this be? Obviously, he’s hungry. How is he being prosecuted for this?’”

The case sparked an interest in law that has never faded.

Johnson was raised in Henderson, North Carolina, by two educators who instilled in her the value of giving back to her community.

She graduated from the University of North Carolina with a B.A. in education in 1987 and began teaching second- and third-grade students, but the pull toward the law remained. After teaching for four years, she was admitted to University of North Carolina School of Law, graduating with honors in 1994.

“Second and third graders aren’t much different than adults, really,” Johnson says. “The tremendous amount of work that teachers do in order to educate children is really analogous to the tremendous amount of work that lawyers — particularly trial lawyers — do in order to educate their clients and jurors and judges.”

Johnson began handling workers’ comp, employment discrimination and civil rights matters at Patterson Harkavy, where she remained for 17 years. In 2011, she started the personal injury and workers’ compensation firm Johnson & Groninger with her partner, Ann E. Groninger.

Throughout her time practicing law, Johnson has continued pursuing her career in education, teaching trial advocacy at UNC School of Law and formerly teaching workers’ compensation law at Wake Forest University School of Law.

“I don’t know why else I would practice law or teach law students, if it weren’t for the fact that I feel that I could make some little difference in people’s lives,” she says.

Johnson is now president of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, where she works to cultivate a sense of community among legal professionals.

Prior to becoming president of NCAJ, she chaired the Legal Specialization Committee for Workers’ Compensation Specialists, and held a position on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Workers’ Compensation Committee.

Johnson is also a member of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, the Durham Association of Women Attorneys, and the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. She has been a board member at Lawyers Mutual since 2015.

“The work that NCAJ does to have a community of lawyers who can help each other, even beyond a formal education, is simply amazing,” Johnson says. “Throughout all the challenges of a pandemic and all of the challenges in the legal field, to make sure that attorneys have each other to lean on is an incredible feat.”

While Johnson has received much support throughout her career, she can attest firsthand to the ways in which the minimal minority representation in the profession is damaging to students.

She says that when she started law school, there was only one African American professor at UNC School of Law, Professor Charles Daye. By the time she graduated, a second African American professor, Marilyn Yarbrough, had joined the faculty.

“There has always been a representation deficit,” Johnson says. “It was not lost on any of us that it was important that we were there and doing our best to make our way through a field that is certainly underrepresented. Law school is challenging enough when you have people who are in tune with your needs. If you don’t have those people, it’s that much more difficult.”

Johnson attributes much of her successful career to those who have helped her along the way, including family members and mentors in the legal community.

“The older I get, the more appreciative I am of the work many people did to make sure that I could have a career in the law,” she says. “Jack Bulger, former dean of UNC Law, and many others there have been so instrumental in making sure that I understood what a difference one person can make when they represent individuals and help them at sometimes the worst period in their lives.”

The success of Johnson’s mission to help others navigate challenging aspects of their lives can be seen in the gratitude she receives from her clients.

Twenty-eight years ago, she started keeping a small “thank you” folder of cards and letters from clients. The fact that the drawer now houses multiple bulging files of thank-you notes shows that she has succeeded in her goal.