Partners Included in Best Lawyers in America 2021

We are pleased to announce that Monty Beck, Kimberly Coward, and Orville Coward have all been included in the 2021 Edition of Best Lawyers in America. Additionally, Orville has been named the Land Use and Zoning Law Section’s Lawyer of the Year for the Asheville Metro Area. Together, these three partners form the entirety of lawyers listed in North Carolina west of Asheville. Best Lawyers© compiles a list of outstanding attorneys across the country through exhaustive peer-review surveys by other recognized lawyers. For more information about Best Lawyers methodology, click here: https://www.bestlawyers.com/methodology.

Orville Coward – 2021 Lawyer of the Year

Orville D. Coward, Jr. began his practice with his father and uncle in 1979 as a trial lawyer. Committed to involvement in the legal community, Mr. Coward served as President of the 30th Judicial District Bar (2001-2002), on the Board of Directors for Western North Carolina Legal Services (1986-2004), as a member of the U.S. District Court Western District North Carolina Rules Advisory Committee (1997-2000), and as a member of the North Carolina State Bar Special Committee on Real Estate Practice (1997-1998). Orville is headquartered in the Franklin office.

Kim Coward – 2021 Real Estate Section

Kimberly Coward specializes in residential real estate transactions in Western North Carolina and is headquartered in our Cashiers office. She is the only Board Certified Specialist in Real Estate Law – Residential Transactions practicing west of Asheville. A graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kim joined the firm in 1988 immediately following law school. She serves as an Advisory Member on the North Carolina Bar Ethics Commission and is a member of the Real Property Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. From 2007 to 2013, she served on the Real Property Committee of the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, and chaired that committee in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Kim currently serves as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Board of Legal Specialization, which oversees the efforts of the Real Property Subcommittee and eleven other specialty practice areas in the State.

Monty Beck – Family Law Section since 2015

Monty Beck is a North Carolina Board Certified Family Law Legal Specialist. He is an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated Lawyer from Martindale-Hubbell, has been named to North Carolina Super Lawyers™ since 2014 and Best Lawyers in America since 2015. In 2019, Best Lawyers named Monty Lawyer of the Year for Family Law in the Asheville Metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Western North Carolina. The Coward, Hicks & Siler firm is included in the U.S. News/Best Lawyers in America “Best Law Firms” for Family Law in the Asheville metropolitan area. This is Monty’s 7th consecutive year of inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America Family Law Section. Monty is headquartered in the Franklin office.

Established in Sylva in 1951, Coward, Hicks & Siler, P.A. is among the most broadly-respected firms in Western North Carolina, offering the talents of seven attorneys in three locations: Sylva, Cashiers, Franklin. A general litigation firm, our lawyers focus their practices in the areas of family law, real estate transactions, and litigation, including eminent domain, environmental law, and resource management matters, estate planning and administration, corporate law, and Indian law.