RALEIGH, N.C. – Judge J. Rich Leonard, adjunct professor of Corporate Reorganization at Campbell Law School, has received the prestigious 2011 American Bar Association Robert B. Yegge award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Judicial Administration. He will be honored at the ABA Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada this summer.
Judge Leonard, a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in Raleigh, N.C., was recognized for his pioneering efforts in the utilization of technology in the courtroom. Judge Barbara Lynn, a U.S. District Court from Dallas, Texas nominated him for the award. She describes Judge Leonard as “an esteemed jurist with a unique blend of charisma and supreme intellect,” whose “commitment to the modernization of court technology has made him a paragon in the field of judicial administration.”
Judge Leonard’s efforts to bring technology to the federal courts date back to 1985, when he represented the Fourth Circuit at the First National Conference on Court Technology. He then became one of four judges in the country who developed and supervised the implementation of the federal court computerized case management and electronic filing system. This system has transformed federal court administration and continues to positively impact every attorney who litigates in the federal courts. Judge Leonard’s contributions to the judiciary also include assisting developing countries with judicial reform. At the invitation of the U.S. State Department, Judge Leonard has traveled to Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Nigeria, and Romania to aid in judicial reform.
Judge Leonard currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal. At Campbell Law School, Judge Leonard has taught as an adjunct for several years. His current Corporate Reorganization course is taught in his court chambers, and he incorporates hearings from his current cases into the course.
A native of Welcome, North Carolina in Davidson County, he graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was a Morehead Scholar, and Yale Law School. Judge Leonard is the father of five children, and is married to Dr. Whitney Cain, an associate professor of psychology at Peace College.
About Campbell Law School: Since its founding in 1976, the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. 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 3,200 alumni, including 2,200 who reside and work in North Carolina. For 21 years, Campbell Law’s record of success on the North Carolina Bar Exam has been unsurpassed by any other North Carolina law school. In September 2009, Campbell Law relocated to a state-of-the-art building in downtown Raleigh. For more information, visit law.campbell.edu.
Media Contact: Julie Lechner, 919.865.5978, lechner@law.campbell.edu