RALEIGH — A prominent North Carolina attorney is pledging Campbell University’s School of Law a half million dollars to establish the Joseph E. Zaytoun International Judicial Clerkship Fellowship, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced.
Robert Zaytoun is the owner of the Zaytoun Law Firm in Wilmington, where for the past 35 years his practice has focused on catastrophic personal injury, including medical malpractice, motor vehicle injury, premises liability, whistle blower cases and other areas of torts and wrongful death.
An admirer of Campbell Law’s advocacy programs for the past decade, Zaytoun has been a longtime supporter of the school’s clinics, trial teams, advocacy center and global initiatives. The new Joseph E. Zaytoun Fellowship, named for Zaytoun’s late father, will support law students clerking in the courts of several African countries beginning summer of 2026.
“I am thrilled to support the Joseph E. Zaytoun International Judicial Clerkship Fellowship, named for my father, and to help provide clerkship opportunities in Africa for Campbell Law students,” Zaytoun said.
Leonard added, “Our vision for these clerkships is to provide unique opportunities for our Campbell Law students to step outside of their comfort zone and work with a variety of judges in the African nations of Rwanda, Namibia and Ghana.”
Zaytoun began his legal career in 1976 with Salem & Salem, a litigation firm in Tampa, Florida. He became a member of the North Carolina Bar in 1975 and the Florida Bar in 1977. He returned to his native North Carolina in 1978, taking a position as an Assistant District Attorney for Wake County. After four years of intense trial work as a prosecutor, trying more than 100 cases in front of juries as lead counsel for the state, Zaytoun entered the private practice of law in Raleigh in 1982, focusing on criminal defense. His practice soon evolved into representing injured people in personal injury cases. Zaytoun earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975, after having earned his bachelor’s degree in 1971, also from UNC-CH. He earned his Mediation Course Certification from the Duke Private Adjudication Center in 2002.
Zaytoun feels strongly that serving his community is part of the calling as a lawyer. He has served on the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission, the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Symphony, the Judicial Nominating Commission, the Board of Directors of Farm Pilot Project Coordination, the Board of Directors of New Vision Renewable Energy, as a member of the Tryon Palace Council of Friends, as chairman for six years of the annual UNC Law Alumni Golf Tournament raising funds for scholarships, as a member of the N.C. Film Commission, on the Board of Directors of the Martha Capps Family Foundation, and, most recently and proudly, on the Board of Directors of SPCA of Wake County.
Joseph Ellis Zaytoun, a centenarian born in Kinston, North Carolina, in 1920 and father of four, died in 2021. His long and purposeful life personified the very motto of the U.S. Marine Corps for which he served as a Second Lieutenant in the Pacific Theater in World War II. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1942 following his military service. He served in Gov. Terry Sanford’s administration on the State Board of Elections, which inspired his son Robert to become an attorney. Joseph Zaytoun began his business career in the insurance industry in Raleigh, eventually moving to Cary to establish his own insurance agency, Zaytoun and Associates. As a result of his many years of service to his community and his myriad contributions to the state, he was presented with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Gov. Roy Cooper, served for many years as a trustee of the North Carolina Symphony, serving for more than 30 years on the Tryon Palace Commission and became well-known as “Cary’s Ambassador” in its Sister Cities Program.
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