RALEIGH — The Campbell Law Observer published an article, “Judicial Clerkships Across Africa: A Life Changing Experience,” by Dean J. Rich Leonard on Sept. 24, 2026.
In the article, Leonard discusses his initiative in creating the Joseph E. Zaytoun International Judicial Clerkship, a program that sends American law students to serve in African appellate courts.
Following is an excerpt from the original article:
“A phone call can change your life. Two have changed mine. The first came in my final year of law school. Desperate to return home to North Carolina, I was finding that my Yale law degree was not a help. Only two judges were even willing to consider my application for a judicial clerkship, and the time in which each said they would decide had long passed. I was getting on my bicycle after class to head home when a buddy stopped me. “There’s a note on the bulletin board for you to call some judge in North Carolina,” he said. I raced back in and made the call. It was to perhaps the most respected federal judge to ever sit in our state, Franklin T. Dupree, Jr. He offered me a two-year clerkship which I accepted on the spot. That call opened the door to a long career in the federal courts.
“The second call came in the spring of 1994. At that point, I was a federal bankruptcy judge with chambers in Wilson, when a fellow professing to be from the State Department called and asked if I would like to go to Zambia as a consultant to their judiciary. I immediately said, “Sure, where’s Zambia?” Eight weeks later I was in Lusaka, starting what came to be virtually a second career working with courts all over Africa for three decades. Those experiences completely changed my life.
“Last year, I was pondering how to connect these two themes in my life for the benefit of my students. The proverbial light bulb went off. What if I could provide judicial clerkships for my students in African appellate courts? I set out to try.
“Contacts became helpful. I had met the former Chief Justice of Ghana at an international conference in 2017 and expressed my desire to create an African experience for my law students. She immediately responded, “You will come to Ghana.” And she turned to one of her law deans and said sternly, “And you will make it happen.” We did just that. Except during the COVID years, I have led a terrific, life-changing three-week study abroad program in Ghana for my students. I was not a stranger to the Ghanaian courts.
“One of the countries where I had done substantial work two decades earlier was Namibia. The then Chief Justice appointed a Commission on the Reduction of Costs and Delays and invited me to staff it. In that capacity, I had met and become friends with the newest (and shyest) High Court judge, Peter Shivute. Peter is now the Chief Justice.
“A third country where I was interested in exploring was Rwanda, where I had no formal contacts with their judiciary. However, the summer prior I had persuaded Pepperdine Law School to allow one of my students, Kevin Goodman, to travel to Rwanda under the auspices of their internship program. He had been a huge hit. His contacts got me through the door.”
The rest of the article can be read at this link.
The Campbell Law Observer is a student-run online legal journal covering a broad base of interesting legal topics. The goal of the CLO is to provide reports, articles and unique perspectives about current legal topics for the benefit of attorneys, legal scholars, students and other interested members of the public at large. The CLO is an online journal written by student staff members, Campbell Law faculty and guest contributors. While interest in the CLO likely arises mostly from within the legal community, the CLO strives to appeal to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.
The CLO was founded as a weekly print newspaper covering various legal topics. It was distributed on Campbell Univeristy’s main campus in Buies Creek prior to the law school moving to Raleigh in 2009. In 2012, the transition was made from print to the current online format.
Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law School has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation’s top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation’s best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2026, Campbell Law is celebrating 50 years of educating legal leaders and 17 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.