Kevin Mahoney

Helping a neighbor or someone who is having a hard time connects us. Kevin Mahoney was taught this lesson as a young man by his parents, who were always volunteering. Kevin spent his time between college graduation and law school building stoves and houses for the poor in Central America. 

After completing law school, Kevin learned to try jury trials as a prosecutor and then spent more than a decade helping landowners try to obtain just compensation in eminent domain cases at his previous practice. 

The case that he is proudest of resulted in the reversal of the taking of private land and a restoration of the landowner’s ownership.* A city took a thriving commercial strip mall by eminent domain and turned it over to a private corporation to build a private baseball stadium on the property. Kevin worked with another lawyer and filed a lawsuit challenging the taking. They won. The taking was reversed. 

The landowner’s property ownership rights were restored. Justice was served. 

Kevin and his wife decided to move to Western NC when the pull of his young family and the requirements of a busy big-city law practice prompted some soul searching. 

Kevin joined the Attorney General’s Western Office in Asheville, which covers the 26 westernmost counties. He was assigned some of the most complex cases in the Western Office as well as many of the cases with the highest monetary exposure, all while mentoring younger attorneys and sharing his decades-long condemnation experience with them. 

Eventually, Kevin rose to become Special Deputy Attorney General, where he led the Western Office — managed hundreds of cases, hired and trained new attorneys, and more. Teaching aspiring real estate brokers in the evening also allowed Kevin to help people who were trying to break into a new career. 

Kevin has a keen sense of fairness and recognizes the importance of a level playing field. This sense of fairness is what drew him to join the NC Eminent Domain Law Firm. 

“The NCDOT has hundreds of engineers and many right-of-way agents and staff appraisers. The landowner often stands alone facing this huge government agency. I possess unique skills and knowledge of how the condemnation process works, having done it for over 20+ years. I again represent property owners to ensure that the playing field remains level and that the landowners of Western North Carolina are not outgunned or outmanned when the NCDOT takes their land,” Kevin said. 

Don’t let his easy manner fool you. If you met him outside of work, his reserved demeanor would not reveal his competitiveness in the courtroom and his eventful career accomplishments. 

You would think that Kevin is just a friendly guy who enjoys helping people. And he is. But to his clients, that friendly guy is also a formidable advocate. 

*Results obtained prior to joining the NC Eminent Domain Law Firm. Each case is unique and must be evaluated on its own merits. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.