RALEIGH, N.C. – Melissa Essary, dean of the Campbell University Norman A. Wiggins School of Law, was featured as the keynote speaker at the Garner Chamber of Commerce Women in Business luncheon on September 15 at the Grand Marquise Ballroom in Garner, N.C.
In an address titled, “From the Creek to the Capital: A Journey of Challenge, Opportunity and Faith,” Essary spoke to a large group of women community and business leaders about the challenges she has faced and overcome leading Campbell Law School, including the school’s historic move to downtown Raleigh in 2009. She also shared her journey and experience as a trial lawyer in an international Dallas-based law firm, eventually leading to her current role as the fourth and first female dean of the school.
“Dean Essary’s dramatic stories of the law school’s relocation to Raleigh, and her insights into its mission to produce attorneys who serve their communities, are fascinating,” said Neal Padgett, president of the Garner Chamber of Commerce. “Woven throughout the tales was her upbeat outlook on life, which our audience found both inspiring and motivational.”
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW:
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 25 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.