The following op/ed, which was written by Dean J. Rich Leonard and A. Grant Simpkins ’19, current Wallace Leadership Fellow, was published on the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly website on April 29. It is expected to run in the publication’s print edition on May 25, 2020, according to Editor in Chief David Donovan.
“Since I became dean at Campbell Law seven years ago, it has been my impression that our alumni have steadily increased their presence in the state trial courts. However, the evidence has only been anecdotal, as there is no database (or none we could find) that provides law school graduation information about sitting judges. There are over 350 district, superior, and business court judges in the state of North Carolina, each with a unique path to the bench. With the help of my diligent Wallace Fellow Grant Simpkins, we set to work. The Administrative Office of the Courts was able to provide us with the names of all state trial judges effective January 1, 2020. Using that as a starting point, we have produced the first comprehensive list of what law schools produce trial judges. Research has involved alumni records, Ballotpedia and Wikipedia, basic internet search engines, campaign websites, Facebook, LinkedIn, and old-fashioned phone calls to the courts. In the end, we found every one, so the tables below are 100% accurate. And as the Campbell Dean, they are also reaffirming.
“So where did our current state trial judges go to law school?”
|
District Court Judges By Law School |
|
|
Campbell |
62 |
|
NCCU |
61 |
|
UNC |
49 |
|
Wake Forest |
35 |
|
Elon |
2 |
|
Duke |
1 |
|
Other |
56 |
|
Superior Court Judges By Law School |
|
|
UNC |
23 |
|
Wake Forest |
22 |
|
NCCU |
18 |
|
Campbell |
17 |
|
Duke |
1 |
|
Elon |
0 |
|
Other |
15 |
|
NC Chief District Judge |
|
|
UNC |
11 |
|
Campbell |
9 |
|
NCCU |
9 |
|
WFU |
5 |
|
Other |
7 |
|
Senior Resident Superior Judge |
|
|
UNC |
13 |
|
Wake Forest |
12 |
|
Campbell |
10 |
|
NCCU |
7 |
|
Other |
5 |
|
NC Business Court Judges |
|
|
Harvard |
1 |
|
University of Georgia |
2 |
|
UNC |
2 |
|
Superior Court Special Judges |
|
|
UNC |
3 |
|
Indiana |
2 |
|
NCCU |
1 |
|
Campbell |
1 |
“The research indicates that our state trial judges overwhelmingly graduate from four law schools, UNC, Wake Forest, Campbell, and North Carolina Central University. The ‘Other’ categories indicates an out-of-state law school. The law school outside of North Carolina with the most trial judges was Regent University School of Law, where former Supreme Court of North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin is now Dean.
“Overall, the distribution of judges from the four mentioned North Carolina law schools is relatively equal. Now that we have this information, an annual update will not be difficult, and we can watch trends over time.”
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW
Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law 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 4,200 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2019, Campbell Law celebrated 40 years of graduating legal leaders and 10 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.