History of the Firm
The Perry Family law firm of Kinston can be traced back to the first Perry attorney, Daniel Elijah Perry (1857-1897), the grandfather of Dan E. Perry (retired 2019), and the great-grandfather of James S. “Jimbo” Perry, Partner of the current firm of Perry, Perry & Perry.
Daniel married Lillian Manoah Sutton from Lenoir County, and they had five children: Daniel Jr, known as "Jack", a lawyer who was killed in a tragic hunting accident in 1918; Noah, who died in 1918 of the flu during the worldwide pandemic; Bliss P. Carey, whose husband was J.W. Carey; Susie P. West, whose husband, Clifton F. West; and Ely Jackson Perry (1896-1968) who was the founder of the present Perry, Perry & Perry.
Ely was a 1917 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. He obtained his law degree from UNC in 1920, after attending one year at Harvard law school in Boston. He is remembered as a man of compassion and high moral standards in dealing with his fellow man. Ely had his first office on the second floor of the old Perry/Wooten building, referred to as "The Silver Dome", located at the northeast corner of Queen and Gordon Streets in downtown Kinston. His long-time secretary was Eva P. Wood, a high school classmate.
Ely married Elizabeth Ann Seipp of Baltimore, Maryland on October 14, 1922, and were the parents of three boys: Warren (1924-2003) of the UNC law class of 1950; Ely Jr. (1926 - 2004) who received his medical degree in 1954 in the first four-year class of the UNC Medical School; and Dan who got his UNC law degree in 1958.
When Warren returned to Kinston in 1950 the father/son firm took on the name of Perry & Perry. The following year Warren married Barbara Mae Stockton of Franklin, North Carolina who graduated in Warren's law class of 1950. Her contributions to the firm were limited to "of counsel" in that she was busy raising their four children.
The Perry’s had outgrown their office space on Queen Street requiring the move to 106 W. Gordon Street for additional space. After graduating in the UNC law class of 1958, Dan spent a year in Raleigh as a research assistant for Justice R. Hunt Parker of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He then spent 2 years in Chapel Hill with solo practitioner John Manning concentrating on title searches and loan closings. He returned to Kinston in 1962 joining his family. In the process, the firm’s name was changed to Perry, Perry & Perry Attorneys. Dan started with a general practice but later focused on real estate and loan closings.
Warren's and Barbara’s daughter Elizabeth P. Worthington earned her law degree from UNC in 1978 and returned to Kinston in 1988 to join her parents and Uncle in general practice. Warren and Barbara’s son James S. “Jimbo” Perry earned his law degree at UNC in 1980. After practicing a year with Michael Swain in Raleigh, he joined the US Attorney's office as a persecutor in the Federal court system for five years before returning to Kinston to join the family firm. To accommodate their continuing growth, the Perry’s built their own office building at 518 Plaza Boulevard in 1984. Dan retired from the full-time practice of law in 2019 and Betty Blaine followed suit in early 2020. The first non-Perry attorney to be employed by the firm was Josiah J. Corrigan, of Lexington, KY. Josiah earned his law degree from Regent University in 2007 and after a clerkship with Associate Justice Edward T. Brady at the North Carolina Supreme Court, joined the firm full time in 2008. Evan Hiatt earned his law degree from UNC in 2019 and joined the firm full-time that same year.