Paul Tharp grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. After graduating from high school, Mr. Tharp continued his education at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where he received a basketball scholarship and played varsity basketball for three years. Mr. Tharp graduated magna cum laude from UNCW with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. He then attended law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While in law school, Mr. Tharp competed on the Moot Court Invitational Team and worked as a columnist for The Daily Tar Heel and Mere Dictum, two campus publications. After graduating from UNC Law and passing both the Florida and North Carolina Bar Exams, Mr. Tharp and his wife, Tisha, settled in the Charlotte area.

Mr. Tharp is an experienced trial attorney who has tried bench and jury trials in state and federal courts in North Carolina. Mr. Tharp has written appeals and petitions in civil and criminal cases before the United States Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Eastern, Middle, and Western Federal District Courts in North Carolina, the North Carolina Supreme Court, and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Mr. Tharp has appeared and argued cases before numerous courts in counties and districts throughout North Carolina.

At Arnold & Smith, PLLC, Mr. Tharp focuses his practice on civil rights cases, post-conviction relief petitions and appeals, civil and criminal appeals, car-crash cases, and other injury and appeal-related matters. Mr. Tharp handles cases primarily in the Charlotte metropolitan region and in the Federal District Courts in North Carolina. In some circumstances, Mr. Tharp will handle injury or appeal cases outside of the greater Charlotte and Mecklenburg County areas.

In his spare time, Mr. Tharp is an avid runner and enjoys hiking through the foothills of the Carolinas with his family. He and his wife, Tisha, are proud parents of a son and two daughters.