CityView Magazine - Fayetteville, NC
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/9337
ttorneyI Toni King Attorney t may be a man’s world, but try telling that to Toni King. At Miller King & Clouse, Miller, King and Clouse are women. Mere city blocks may separate their downtown law firm from the Cumberland County courthouse, a realm still dominated by men, but King is a woman accustomed to adaptation. Her military father moved the fam- ily to all parts of the map. Her Korean mother made sure her eldest daughter learned her native tongue. Today, King is a litigator who just happens to speak fluent Korean. “Some people accuse me of wearing rose-colored glasses,” she says, smiling. But though she and her male colleagues may duke it out in the courtroom, “They really want to see you succeed as a young woman.” She has wanted to be a lawyer since ninth grade civics. Now, King is the one teaching as an adjunct professor at Fay- etteville State University. For her stu- dents, King makes the study of criminal law come to life; she practices it every day. She may soon add judge to her list of jobs. King is running to fill an open seat on the Cumberland County District Court bench. King spent part of her youth in Fay- etteville, but her father’s Army service kept the family moving. He retired here, and King is close to her parents and a younger sister in college. King grew up comfortable moving between cultures, American and Korean, military and civilian. Now, King helps a new gen- eration do the same thing at the Pres- byterian Korean Church, where she is a youth leader. In 2004, King left her job to open a firm with a fellow lawyer, Sherry Miller. They added another partner, Jo Leigh Clouse, and recently hired the firm’s first male partner, Gregg Illikainen. King says it was exciting to start an all-female firm, but honestly, gender rarely crops up in her career. If anything, it’s her age that has clients examining the degrees on her wall. “I think I have socks older than you,” one told her once. King just laughed. After all, she’s had a bit of experience blending worlds. CV 40|Winter 2008/2009