RALEIGH – North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson will offer the commencement address at Campbell University School of Law’s 47th annual hooding and graduation ceremony on Friday, May 9, 2025, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced.
The celebration is scheduled for 10 a.m. at Memorial Auditorium in the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Raleigh.
“It will be a true honor to speak at Campbell Law’s commencement ceremony and to meet the next generation of North Carolina’s attorneys,” said Jackson, who became the state’s 51st attorney general on Jan. 1, 2025. “These graduates will provide remarkable leadership in our state and beyond.”
Jackson replaced current North Carolina Governor Josh Stein as Attorney General. Jackson previously served as U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District from 2023 to 2024 and represented the 37th district in the North Carolina Senate from 2014 to 2022. In October 2023, he announced his candidacy for North Carolina Attorney General. Jackson resigned early from Congress to assume his current role as Attorney General.
“It has become our tradition that the law school invites each sitting Governor, Chief Justice and Attorney General to speak at our commencement exercises during their tenure,” Leonard said. “I am pleased to announce that Attorney General Jackson will continue this practice.”
As a veteran who served in Afghanistan, a former assistant district attorney, a former U.S. Congressman, a former state legislator, a former member of the Army Reserve and a current member of the Army National Guard, Jackson began his public service career when he enlisted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and trained at Ft. Bragg. He continues to serve in the North Carolina Army National Guard as a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is currently in his 22nd year of military service and drills monthly at an armory in Wake County.
While campaigning to become Attorney General, Jackson said he was running “because the core purpose of the job is to be a shield for you and your family.” He said he has dedicated himself to the security and wellbeing of others and believes the Attorney General must be a non-partisan, independent voice for the people of North Carolina.
Born in Miami, Florida, Jackson grew up in Chapel Hill. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Emory University and his JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Jackson worked as a business litigator at Womble Bond Dickinson in Charlotte. Before joining the North Carolina Senate, Jackson worked as a prosecutor in Gaston County, North Carolina. He resigned upon joining the Senate, as the state constitution prohibits serving as an elected official and a prosecutor simultaneously. Jackson and his wife, Marisa, have three children.
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL
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 nearly 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law celebrated 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 15 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.