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As Patrick Mincey ’03 tied his sailboat, his phone screen came alive. It was his law partner. Mincey could call him later. 

The phone lit up again. 

Mincey climbed the mast to get a better cell signal. Perched above Sand Cove in the summer of 2022, he heard his favorite kind of story — a dramatic tale about an interesting person in serious trouble. 

Will Wilkerson, an executive with Trump Media and Technology Group, possessed substantial evidence of securities violations in the founding of Truth Social, the former president’s social media platform. 

Wilkerson had information of historic significance. He needed the right lawyers, and Mincey’s firm was an ideal choice. 

A partner in the Wilmington, North Carolina, office of Cranfill Sumner, Mincey’s practice focuses on three kinds of clients: whistleblowers, particularly related to kleptocracy and cryptocurrency crimes; executive boards facing serious legal crises; and clients navigating complex investigative processes.

Mincey and his team received global attention for representing Mark Coffey, a North Carolina whistleblower who accused Avenir Private Advisors of laundering millions of dollars stolen from Venezuela’s state oil company. Coffey’s complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) touched off an investigation that involved the Department of Justice and the FBI.

In some cases, Mincey and his colleagues serve their clients by making noise, by shining bright lights in dark places. They use the media to shape public narratives and to pressure government agencies to act. They argue high-stakes cases before judges and juries.

In other cases, discretion is Mincey’s most important quality. A corporation’s stock price or a prominent career depends on his ability to attract as little attention as possible.

These cases might seem to require different kinds of attorneys. But for Mincey, they all share a fundamental quality — the excitement of crafting stories for people facing the most serious trouble of their lives.     

The Theatre of the Law

Mincey became fascinated with the law as a boy in Pinehurst, North Carolina. One firm in town, Van Camp, Meacham and Newman, stood out as “the movers and shakers,” Mincey recalled.

“They handled the cases everyone talked about,” he said. 

Then came the OJ Simpson trial. In January 1995, Simpson, a former pro football player and media personality, went on trial for the murder of his ex-wife and one of her friends. The televised proceedings became a national obsession. Watching F. Lee Bailey, one of Simpson’s defense attorneys, hooked Mincey on “the theatre of the law. The action.” 

When the time came to choose a college, his father told him that if he wanted to go to school in North Carolina and get an education that would take him anywhere, �ʼһ��� was the place.

Mincey arrived on campus with an open mind. When his first-year advisor quizzed him about career interests, Mincey — a doctor’s son — said, “maybe med school.” The advisor shook his head and said, “students who go to med school know they want to go to med school.”

Ultimately, the lure of the written word proved irresistible. Mincey shelved books in the E.H. Little Library and fell in love with the Rare Book Room. He also met three English faculty members who shaped his love of literature and his philosophy of life.

Prof. Gill Holland taught Mincey that literature and art make existential demands. 

“They capture passion, and they compel human beings to feel, to seek out beauty and adventure,” Mincey said. “It is your duty to do so.” 

Holland’s classes exposed Mincey to a parade of literary lives lived in this spirit; they also gave Mincey opportunities to recite and perform.

Prof. Randy Ingram introduced Mincey to two texts that became foundational in his life. King Lear “was devastating.” Reading it with Ingram made Mincey an English major. Milton’s Areopagitica provided an eloquent defense of free expression that still shapes Mincey’s commitments as a lawyer.

In Mincey’s senior year, Prof. Randy Nelson’s course on legal fiction combined Mincey’s love of literature and his sense of the courtroom as a stage. The course culminated in a mock trial in Phi Hall with Nelson presiding. Mincey jockeyed for a position as lead counsel for one of the parties. 

“I really wanted to be good,” he said, “but I really just wanted to have fun, too.” 

Mincey remembers the exhilaration of stepping into “this sacrosanct building in the heart of campus” with its high ceilings and windows, the drapes, the perfect lighting for a courtroom drama. 

At the end of the trial, Mincey’s classmates voted him Most Likely to Become a Trial Lawyer. Mincey also remembers “Judge” Nelson’s “strong observations” about badgering witnesses. 

Mincey’s summers involved long road trips with �ʼһ��� friends, Kerouacian adventures full of talk about literature, ideas, and Grateful Dead shows. He saw a lot of the country and experienced the kind of freedom and adventure he had encountered in literature.

These �ʼһ��� experiences, in the classroom and on the road, forged a philosophy that shaped Mincey’s approach to life and the practice of law.

“You cannot be complacent about life. You are supposed to feel broken down and forced to engage with life and the work you choose,” he said. “If you pursue a duty or a higher calling, it will lead you into a life of adventure.”