Areas of Practice Concentration

Legislative Lobbying, Executive Branch and Administrative Representation, Developmental and Organizational Counsel, and General Legal Representation for:

• Business Corporations
• Non-profit Organizations
• Trade Associations
• Advocacy Organizations
• Public-Private Partnerships
• Individuals

Education

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A. 1965
• Duke University School of Law, J.D. 1968

Bar Admissions

• North Carolina, 1971

Court Admissions

• Eastern and Middle U.S. District Courts, North Carolina
• United States Court of Military Appeals

Professional Affiliations

• Wake County, Durham County, North Carolina and American Bar Associations
• American Judicature Society

Gerry Hancock's legal, governmental and diplomatic skills have earned him a reputation as "a man to see" when it comes to organizing and nurturing public-private partnerships, non-profit organizations, trade associations, advocacy groups, and technology-based businesses.

Gerry's practice includes a wide range of services for non-profit and business organizations, including legal representation, mission development, organizational design, organizational management services, long-range strategic planning, fund-raising planning, tax exemption, legislative agendas, coalition building, grassroots organizing and lobbying (legislative and executive branch).

A former state senator, Gerry has devoted much of his time in recent years to lobbying the North Carolina General Assembly on behalf of the statewide Low Wealth Schools Consortium, the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Coalition and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Under Gerry's leadership, these groups and numerous others have achieved notable results. For the state's low wealth schools, Gerry was instrumental in the initiation of the Leandro v. NC litigation, leading to the North Carolina Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing every child's right to a sound, basic education. Gerry also led the lobbying effort to increase the annual supplemental appropriation to the state's low wealth school systems from $6 million to $175 million and helped lead the legislative effort to authorize (and the public campaign to approve) the 1996 $1.8 billion public school bond. For the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Coalition, whose members include the state's top tourist attractions, Gerry led efforts to establish uniform legislative guidelines for local occupancy taxes, to prevent discriminatory taxation of the tourism industry, to adopt the Tourism Policy Act, to establish the North Carolina Board of Travel and Tourism and to increase funding for the Division of Travel and Tourism; he also led several successful fights against public subsidies for luxury hotels. For the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Gerry successfully lobbied to maintain annual funding for the Center's budget, to establish the Genetic Engineering Review Board and to protect the state's genetically modified crops from discriminatory regulation.

Gerry's contributions to his state and community are manifold. Among other things, he was the Founding Chairman of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. He helped to organize and serve as Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. He has served as Co-Chair of the General Assembly's Study Commission on Biotechnology, as Director of the North Carolina Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Board of Ethics, as a Member of the Commission on the Future of the Community College System, and as a Member of the Advisory Committee to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

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