Pamela Wachter McAfee is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP who practices in the area of bankruptcy and creditors rights in the Raleigh office.  Ms. McAfee has extensive experience working with bankruptcy matters, having served as a staff attorney to the Honorable A. Thomas Small of the United States Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of North Carolina from 2001 until his retirement in 2009, and to the court as a whole from September 2009 to March 2010.   She served as the bankruptcy court liaison to the Local Rules Committee of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and as the secretary to the Local Rules Committee for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and was appointed in June 2010 to a four-year term as a member of the Local Rules Committee for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. As of January 2011, Ms. McAfee is also serving a three-year term as a member of the Civil Rules Subcommittee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Ms. McAfee has served as director of business development for a software company in Durham, N.C. and worked on litigation and corporate/commercial real estate teams at another North Carolina law firm before joining Nelson Mullins. She also served as judicial clerk to the Honorable J. Rich Leonard, United States Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of North Carolina.

She is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association Bankruptcy Section and was co-managing editor of the North Carolina Bankruptcy Practice Manual (2007).  Ms. McAfee is the North Carolina founder and coordinator of the Credit Abuse Resistance Education Program (CARE). She is a past chair of the Wake County Bar Association Lawyers Support Committee.

A frequent speaker, McAfee’s recent speeches and presentations include:

• “Bankruptcy,” North Carolina Practical Skills: Basics in Substantive Areas of Law, sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation, Cary, North Carolina, October 21, 2011.
• “Exemptions,” Basics of Bankruptcy, sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation, Cary, North Carolina, September 23, 2011.
• "Exemptions," Bankruptcy for Beginners and Part-Time Practitioners, sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation, Cary, North Carolina, September 24, 2010.
• "Exemptions," Eastern District Bankruptcy Seminar, Wilson, North Carolina, April 19, 2010.
• Guest Lecturer, Bankruptcy and Debtor/Creditor Classes, UNC School of Law, NCCU School of Law and Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University, Spring 2010, Spring 2011.
• Guest Lecturer, Corporate Reorganization Class, Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, Campbell University, Fall 2009.
• “Consumer / Non-Business Chapter 11 – A Primer,” 31st Annual Bankruptcy Institute, sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation, Asheville, North Carolina, November 21, 2008.
• “Reaffirmation Agreements: When and Why Court Approval Is Required,” 2006 Legal Assistants Seminar, sponsored by the Clerk of Court, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Wilson, North Carolina, December 1 and 8, 2006.
• “Basic Procedure,” Bankruptcy for the Non-Bankruptcy Attorney, sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation, Cary, North Carolina, September 15, 2006.
• “Chapter 11 Update,” Eastern Bankruptcy Institute, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 3, 2006.
• “Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty: The Interim Rules and Forms,” Conference for Bankruptcy Administrators and Staff on the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, jointly sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Atlanta, Georgia, August 23, 2005.
• “Chapter 11 Update: How the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 Will Affect Chapter 11 Cases,” Eastern Bankruptcy Institute, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, June 4, 2005.
• “Chapter 13 Case Update,” North Carolina Bar Association Consumer Law Symposium, Cary, North Carolina, September 17, 2004.
• “Mental Wellness Update,” Eastern Bankruptcy Institute, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, May 30, 2003.

A member of the North Carolina Bar, she is admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of North Carolina. Ms. McAfee is also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.

She earned her Juris Doctor, with honors, from the University of North Carolina School of Law, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1994, where she was a member of the Order of Barristers and the Holderness Moot Court. She received the American Jurisprudence Award in Legal Research and Writing and was treasurer of Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 1991 from the University of Pennsylvania.