Bar Admissions

North Carolina

Education

Duke University, J.D., 2016; Executive Articles Editor, Alaska Law Review

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A., with highest distinction, 2012; Phi Beta Kappa; Irene F. Lee Award (outstanding woman in graduating class)

Profile

Morgan Abbott represents clients in a broad range of corporate and transactional matters with a focus on tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations, health care, education, employment and labor, and general corporate law. She has experience negotiating and drafting a variety of contractual agreements. Morgan advises a range of exempt organizations, including public charities, private foundations, health care systems and universities, on governance and tax matters, regulatory and ethical compliance, grantmaking, joint ventures, formation, applications for tax-exempt status, reorganizations, dissolution and general corporate matters. She understands that proactive governance, compliance and risk-management programs allow corporations and organizations to focus on value creation and external impact. Morgan draws on her first career in nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship to help her clients find practical business and legal solutions.

Morgan also has a broad range of litigation experience, including business disputes, constitutional law, fraud and unfair trade practices, employment and labor, and misappropriation of trade secrets. She capitalizes on this experience to more comprehensively advise her corporate clients.

Before law school, Morgan worked in nonprofit management in East Africa.

Clerkships

  • Law Clerk, The Honorable Gerald B. Tjoflat, U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, 2016-17

Experience

Experience

  • Advises charitable organizations in all aspects of their formation including incorporation, applications for state and federal tax exemptions, creation of compliance and risk management programs, and charitable solicitation licensing and compliance.

  • Serves as outside general counsel to the largest conversion foundation on a per capita basis in the United States.

  • Represented a nonprofit health system in its $1.5 billion acquisition by the nation's largest hospital operator.

  • Counsels professional athletes in connection with founding and administering their charitable foundations.

  • Represents former health system supporting organizations in reclassifications and reorganizations as public charities.

  • Conducted governance reviews and internal audits for grantmaking foundations, family foundations, health care systems, hospitals, secondary schools and professional accreditation organizations.

  • Represents a health system and its supporting organization in dissolution and distribution of assets, including representation before the North Carolina attorney general and Superior Court to modify purpose and management restrictions of restricted funds pursuant to the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act.

  • Counsels foundations on all aspects of their management, including governance, strategic planning, executive compensation, tax and regulatory compliance, resource development programs, third-party vendor risk management, responding to whistleblower complaints, joint ventures, and grantmaking programs and agreements.

  • Advises nonprofit board members regarding conflicts of interest, fiduciary duties, risk management and other aspects of board governance.

  • Secured injunctive relief on behalf of Gov. Roy Cooper in a case involving proposed amendments to the North Carolina Constitution.

  • Served as counsel to a global corporation in a multi-week trial in the Western District of North Carolina and procured a $111 million judgment against three defendants for fraud, conspiracy, unfair trade practices and RICO violations.

  • Counsels nonprofit and corporate clients in negotiations and litigation involving employment and noncompetition agreements, executive compensation, discrimination, whistleblower complaints, and misappropriation of trade secrets.

News & Events

Insights

Affiliations

Professional Affiliations

  • North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys

Community Affiliations

  • The Amani Children's Foundation, Board of Directors
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Young Alumni Leadership Council, Co-Chair
  • Duke Law School, Women's Law Student Association, Mentor
  • Duke Law School, Triangle Regional Alumni Board
  • UNC Presbyterian Campus Ministry, College Small Group Leader
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