RALEIGH – Campbell Law School has a new initiative to encourage faculty members to pursue and share scholarship through academic writing, thanks to the generosity of an alumna, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced.
The Pryor Prize is a new $10,000 annual award for the best piece of academic writing by a faculty member.
A member of the Class of 2019, who would like to remain anonymous, chose the name to honor Professor Emeritus Scott Pryor, who taught her in a couple of classes. While in law school, the alumna also served as Professor Pryor’s Teaching Scholar, and the two have remained close, Leonard said.
“As a law student, our alumna was impressed with the rigor of Campbell’s academic program,” Leonard explained. “This major gift of $50,000 is made with the intent that Campbell Law will use it to retain its strong faculty by rewarding the pursuit of academic excellence.”
The Pryor Prize is in recognition of the academic excellence provided through Professor Pryor’s instruction and will be used to distribute $10,000 annually for five years to one or multiple Campbell Law faculty member(s) who demonstrate(s) academic excellence through writing and/or research.
Any article published by a Campbell Law faculty member between June 1 and May 31 of an academic year will be eligible for consideration, according to the initiative.
A committee, chosen by Leonard, is composed of Professor Pryor, Dean Emerita Melissa Essary and the donor will make the final selection. The prize will be awarded at a dinner each summer.
Professor Pryor retired in December 2024 after nearly a decade of teaching at Campbell Law. Learn more about him, his scholarship and his career at this link.
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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 will celebrate 50 years of graduating legal leaders and 17 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.