RALEIGH — The three inaugural recipients of the Campbell Law School Dean‘s Rural Initiative Summer Fellowship have been chosen for 2026, Assistant Dean of Career and Professional Development Mallory Underwood has announced.
The purpose of the Dean’s Rural Initiative Summer Fellowship is to support students who hope to live and work in rural, underserved counties in North Carolina by funding their summer experience. There were three $10,000 summer fellowships available.
Brian Horvick ’27 is working for the Office of the Public Defender in the Second Judicial District. He worked there last summer and is from that area with a stated intent to return to that community in some capacity after graduation. He will be working with alumna Laura Gibson ’10, who is the chief public defender in that legal desert.
Lillian Jackson ’28 will be working as an unpaid intern in the Fifth Prosecutorial District in Duplin County, which is a legal desert. She is a Duplin County native and states that returning to her community has always been her goal.
Grahson Williams ’28 is from Nash County and will be working in Judicial District 8, which serves Nash, Edgecombe and Wilson counties. She will spend five weeks this summer with alumna Judge Caroline F. Quinn ’94 and five weeks with Judge Tim Wilson. Williams states that she hopes to build her career in this area.
“We are excited to be able to offer these Fellowships to our students,” Underwood said. “We had a great applicant pool with a number of qualified students, signaling to us that there is a desire among our students to work in these areas.”
Dean J. Rich Leonard is originally from Welcome, North Carolina, a small, rural community in Davidson County, and he has a personal appreciation for the unique needs small towns across the state have for legal services. This fellowship recognizes Campbell Law’s commitment to access to justice and supporting students’ exploration of opportunities in communities with the greatest need for legal services.
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Since its founding in 1986, 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 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2026, Campbell Law is celebrating 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.