Pappayliou

Diane practices within Butler Snow’s Tort, Transportation, & Specialized Litigation Group.

• Tort, Transportation & Specialized Litigation
• Insurance
• Commercial Litigation
• Transportation & Trucking Rapid Response
• Trucking Litigation
• Products, Catastrophic & Industrial Litigation
• Professional Liability

Construction

• Diane has experience managing and serving on litigation teams for complex civil litigation in state and federal court, including extra-contractual, insurance coverage, products liability, construction defect, professional malpractice, business and commercial, long term care and skilled nursing facility, maritime and admiralty, municipal, and transportation law cases.
• Obtained a dismissal of a lawsuit seeking coverage for a water leak due to service defects, lack of jurisdiction, statute of limitations issues, and failure to state a claim in extra-contractual insurance litigation. (Mecklenburg County, NC 2025).
• Achieved a dismissal for service defects, lack of jurisdiction, statute of limitations issues, and failure to state a claim in extra-contractual insurance litigation regarding a motor vehicle accident. (Wake County, NC 2025).
• Granted motion to dismiss based on service defects, lack of jurisdiction, lack of standing, and failure to state a claim for an insurance company in litigation regarding allegedly improper claim handling by a third-party claimant after a motor vehicle accident. (Columbus County, NC 2025).
• Obtained summary judgment in favor of insurance company based on satisfaction of appraisal award and lack of evidence to substantiate improper claim handling in a wind loss. (Mecklenburg County, NC 2025).
• Received summary judgment and exclusion of opposing engineer expert under Daubert in a wind damage case. (Johnston County, NC 2025).
• Attained a dismissal for failure to prosecute, violation of court’s order, and fabrication of evidence regarding a consumer credit dispute. (EDNC 2024). 
• Obtained summary judgment on extra-contractual claims against insurance company for allegedly improper claim handling in a Hurricane Florence claim. (EDNC 2024).
• Achieved a dismissal for failure to state a claim in employment termination matter based on statutory immunity, the statute of limitations, and failure to state a claim.  (EDNC 2024).
• Obtained summary judgment in a premises liability matter regarding allegedly negligent security based on lack of proximate causation. (WDNC 2023).
• Obtained partial summary judgment in favor of insurance company based on satisfaction of appraisal award and resulting resolution of all claims in litigation in a Hurricane Florence loss. (EDNC 2023).
• Received a dismissal for failure to state a claim for uninsured motorist coverage and improper claim handling based on the statute of limitations and deficient pleading.  (EDNC 2022).

• BL Rankings, The Best Lawyers in America®
  • Ones to Watch, Insurance Law, 2023-2025
  • Ones to Watch, Transportation Law, 2024-2025
• Thomson Reuters Super Lawyers®
  • North Carolina Rising Star, Insurance Coverage, 2022-2025
  • North Carolina Rising Star, Class Actions/Mass Torts, 2021

• North Carolina, 2016
• U.S. District Courts
• North Carolina: Eastern, Middle, Western
• U.S. Court of Appeals
• 4th Circuit

• Elon University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2016
  • Editor-in-Chief, Elon Law Review
  • Dean's Scholar
  • Sam and Vicky Hunt Endowed Scholarship Recipient
• Davidson College, B.A., Anthropology, 2013

• American Bar Association
• North Carolina Bar Association
• North Carolina State Bar
• New Hanover County Bar Association
• North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, Coastal Chapter
  • Secretary
• Defense Research Institute (DRI)
• North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys

• Presenter, “Recent Maritime Law Developments in the U.S. Supreme Court and the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Circuits,” Southeastern Admiralty Law Institute’s Annual Seminar, Amelia Island, FL, June 2018.
• Panelist, Elon Law Review’s Symposium on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Greensboro, NC, October 2017.
• Panelist, North Carolina Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section’s “Thorny Issues and Ethical Minefields in Mediation and Arbitration” CLE, Cary, NC, March 2017.

• Smart Start of New Hanover County
  • Board of Directors, 2018-2024
    • President, 2021-2022
    • Vice President, 2020-2021
• Lawyers for Literacy, Volunteer
• Friends of Public Radio, Inc. (WHQR), Board of Directors, 2022-Present