Kimberly Coward

Kim Coward is a Board Certified Specialist in Real Property Law and Residential Transactions. She has practiced with Coward, Hicks & Siler, PA  since 1988,  focusing almost exclusively on Real Property matters including contracts, easements, property owner associations, entity formation, foreclosures, and real estate development. 

Kim is an active member of both the North Carolina State Bar and the North Carolina Bar Association. For well more than a decade, Kim has served legal governance and specialization in North Carolina through her dedication to the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization. Currently Chair of the Board, she previously served as a member and Chair of the Real Property Legal Specialization Subcommittee.  Kim is a member of the Real Property Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. In further service to the Bar, Kim has served as an advisory member to the Ethics Committee from 2014 to 2020. 

Being part of the small communities of Cashiers and Highlands has provided Kim the opportunity to immerse herself and engage in community services in a more involved way. Kim participates in a multitude of civic activities, including having served on the Cashiers Highlands Humane Society Board, the Western Carolina University Honor College, the Cashiers Community Foundation, the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce and the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital Board of Directors. She currently serves on the board of the Highlands Biological Foundation.  Perhaps one of the most fulfilling services for Kim was being one of the founders, and then the Board Chair, of the Summit Charter School, which was one of North Carolina’s first charter schools.  

Kim has been recognized as “Business Person of the Year” by the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce in 2001. She was also included in North Carolina Bar Journal’s “Profiles of Specialization” magazine series in June 2015. Kim has been listed in Best Lawyers in America Real Estate Section for the last two years.

Kim was born in the midwest and graduated summa cum laude from Iowa State University in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1988, where she was a member of the law review.  

Kim met her husband Judge Bill Coward at law school where he was ahead of her (and still is). Together they have two children: Austin, who completed service in the U.S. Navy, went to school on the GI Bill (thank you USA)and now lives with his wife, Lacey, in Cheyenne, WY.  Claire, a graduate of Clemson University (as is her husband Eric) and mom of the “Prince, Davey Wilkins, who currently holds the position (until August 2022) of being the sole grandchild.

Kim is a “compulsive hobbyist” and loves to do many things with gusto. She taught scuba diving for many years, loves to garden and grow her own food, shoots firearms of all types, and loves golf ( she recently installed a 3 hole pitching course in her backyard). Her latest hobby is her German Shepard Dog named Pebbles, who patrols the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.