Noel L. Allen

Noel Allen assists state, federal, and international clients in complex business transactions and litigation involving regulatory, antitrust, unfair trade, licensing, and administrative law.

Noel is president of Allen & Pinnix, P.A. He is admitted to practice in North Carolina (all state and federal courts) and the District of Columbia, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Court of International Trade. He has made frequent speeches to state, national, and international groups on the transborder application and enforcement of trade regulations, competition laws, and accountancy regulations, including recent presentations in Madrid, Spain; Vancouver, Canada; Guangzhou, China, as well as San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Anchorage. He has also taught antitrust, trade regulation, consumer protection law, and international law as an adjunct professor.

Examples of recognition of Noel’s record of experience and leadership in these fields include the Martindale-Hubbell® AV® Preeminent™ rating**; US News “Best Lawyers in America,” (administrative/regulatory law); "Lawyer of the Year," (Best Lawyers' 2013 Raleigh Administrative / Regulatory Law); NC “Super Lawyers;” “NC Legal Elite” (Business North Carolina); and “Leader in the Law” (NC Lawyers Weekly 2012). He has also received the International Service Award from the North Carolina Bar Association’s International Law Section. In 2008, Elon University named him an Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, and in 2009 Elon awarded him an Honorary Doctorate Degree. In 2011, he was inducted as a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the national honor society recognizing outstanding service and academic excellence.

Noel has enhanced his leadership in these areas of law through teaching and publications (author of North Carolina Unfair Business Practice, LexisNexis; U.S. editor, Competition Laws in Western Europe and the USA, Kluwer; U.S. editor, Comparative Law of Monopolies, Kluwer; N.C. chapter, Legal Aspects of Doing Business in North America, Juris; and U.S. editor, World Intellectual Property Rights and Remedies-Laws with Commentary, West), and through service as chair of North Carolina Bar Association Sections (International, Antitrust & Complex Business Disputes, and Administrative). 

Noel has served on the Elon University Board of Trustees since 1985. He served as Chair of two game-changing, long-range planning committees for Elon, including one that was the subject of a book published by Johns Hopkins University Press (Transforming a College: The Story of a Little-Known College's Strategic Climb to National Distinction). He was Chair of the Search Committee that hired the current University President, and chaired Elon’s Board of Trustees from 2001-2003.

Noel serves as Vice Chair of The Center for the Public Trust (National Association of State Boards of Accountancy). He serves on the Boards of Advisors for both the Elon University School of Law and for the Lazarski University’s LL.M. in Transnational Commercial Practice (Warsaw, Poland). He is also a Fellow of the Center for International Legal Studies (Salzburg, Austria), and his firm is a member of the Center’s International Business Law Consortium.

Examples of matters in which Noel has assisted clients include:

• Served as lead counsel for the administrator of a multi-year, billion-dollar professional licensing exam to be delivered throughout the U.S. and at foreign test centers.
• Represented a nonprofit in its multi-million-dollar sale of a for-profit subsidiary.
• Represented an insurance company in its multi-million-dollar spin-off of a business line.
• Assisted a national association of licensing boards in preparing, updating, and promoting uniform licensing laws and rules.
• Successfully defended a North Carolina business in alleged vertical restraints of trade litigation regarding distribution of the client’s products in foreign markets.
• Represented a fixed-base operator at a regional airport in antitrust and Section 1983 claims against the local government and airport authority, and private competitors.
• Represented a developer in antitrust, unfair trade, and Section 1983 litigation against a consortium of eight banks and a local government.
• Represented a for-profit licensing service and a national trade association in antitrust litigation against a trade association regarding alleged monopolization of professional examination services.
• Served as counsel in a state agency’s civil action against the Federal Trade Commission.

** CV, BV, and AV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell® certification procedure’s standards and policies.