On Wednesday, March 30th, Parker Poe recognized Women’s History Month by honoring Josephine Hicks with our annual Catharine Arrowood Women’s Achievement Award. Josephine is a female pioneer in North Carolina’s legal community who has made significant contributions to the practice of law, the broader community, and Parker Poe.

The presentation was aired virtually, and the award was given by its namesake, Catharine Arrowood, who sat down with Josephine for an honest conversation about their lessons in leadership, diversity, community service, and the practice of law.

Josephine practiced law at Parker Poe for over 30 years before following her faith and passion for community service to become the Vice President of Episcopal Church Programs at Episcopal Relief & Development, where she works to find solutions to community and social crises and issues.

While she was practicing law at the firm, Josephine always committed herself to help people in both her professional and personal life. She held herself to the highest professional and personal standards, reflected in the many other accolades she received during her career.

In her sit down with Catharine, Josephine shared her perspective from practicing law as an openly gay woman who blazed the trail for people to be open about their identity and embrace their differences. She said she always felt that treating others with the same respect you expected to receive was a good start to being accepted yourself. She said that in her time at Parker Poe, she felt equal respect as a professional woman but recognized that wasn’t always the case in the world around us.

The Catherine Biggs Arrowood Women’s Achievement Award was created in 2021 by Parker Poe’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and was first awarded to Parker Poe’s first female partner, Catharine Arrowood herself. This award will be given annually to a woman in the Parker Poe Community whose professional achievements are commendable and complimented by her actions and commitment to helping advance opportunities for others and generally set an exceptional example for diversity and inclusion of all people.