Lynn Wilson McNally

Lynn’s clients know as soon as she enters the room that she is completely present and fully engaged in finding solutions to their problems. Her sincerity and good sense put clients at ease, but it is Lynn’s forward-thinking on how best to address their problems that enables clients to maintain a sense of well-being from the beginning of their matter to its final resolution. Lynn understands how intensely stressful it can be for clients to entrust their personal stories to another individual, so she goes above and beyond to minimize the burden they bear by being supportive while also being outstandingly prepared and organized.

As a Board Certified Family Law Specialist, certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, Lynn is accustomed to handling a variety of complex family law-related matters. These matters include separation and divorce, child custody and support, alimony, equitable distribution, domestic violence, termination of parental rights, and legitimation, among others. She is also a Family Financial Settlement Mediator certified by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission. In this role, Lynn helps people resolve their disagreements through mediated negotiation, bypassing the need to go to court. When Lynn is not acting as a neutral mediator between two parties, she advocates for her own clients in ways geared toward efficient resolution of their legal matters.  From negotiating separation agreements, child custody arrangements, or property distribution contracts, Lynn works to ensure her clients feel heard and supported under the weight of such taxing matters.

From the time she first began her career, working closely with clients as a paralegal, Lynn has honed her intuition for anticipating client needs, as a glance at any of her insightful articles will prove. Now an experienced partner at Smith Debnam, she continues to apply early lessons she learned from her days as a paralegal where it became clear to her the vital role clarity plays in reducing client stress. She takes the time to outline the major milestones of a client’s case. In this way, Lynn’s habit of meticulous preparation is a value to her clients because it gives them the space to breathe and an understanding of the plan to resolve their matters, from start to finish.

Clients appreciate Lynn’s clear, intentional communication style that allows her to connect with them, and at the same time to hold candid, but constructive, discussions centered on making the best financial decisions. Lynn is most in her element when she’s having open, face-to-face conversations with her clients. Her aim is to cultivate a true partnership, to work as a team to reach their goals.

Lynn’s passion for promoting healthy family relationships and caring for children in difficult situations exceeds the boundaries of her work as a lawyer. She serves as Past-Chair of the Board of Directors for House of Hope of North Carolina – an organization providing counseling and resources to hurting teenage girls and their families – and she was previously a Co-Chair of the Domestic Issues Committee of the Young Lawyers Division of the NCBA.

Lynn gives her all to her work, and her capabilities have not gone unnoticed. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America©, an established benchmark of legal excellence, and North Carolina Super Lawyers – a list that recognizes attorneys who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. Lynn frequently appears in Business North Carolina Magazine’s Legal Elite, a high-profile listing of the state’s top lawyers.

Get to Know Lynn

What’s one personality trait you feel makes you a good lawyer?

“I tend to be overly organized, which has served me well.  I find that the way that I have organized my desk, my files, my calendar and my practice, in general, has prevented a level of stress for me that I have seen in other lawyers, and I think that it alleviates the stress of the unknown for my clients”

What do you enjoy most about your job?

“I enjoy the practice of family law and think that it suits my personality and my strengths.  I like working with individuals rather than with corporations, and I find it interesting to think through practical solutions for my clients’ legal questions.  I enjoy being in a role where I get to have compassion but also remain objective so that I can help my clients make the very best business decisions to resolve their matters efficiently and in a way that helps them achieve their primary goals.  Family law touches so many different areas of the law that I am never bored and am always learning new things.”

What do you enjoy outside of work?

“Outside of the office, I enjoy wine, travel, spending time with my family and friends and cooking at home.  My husband and I spend lots of time snuggling our little dog, Lola, listening to music—mostly reggae—and talking about our next adventure, whatever that might be.”