RALEIGH – North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby will offer the commencement address at Campbell University School of Law’s 46th annual hooding and graduation ceremony on Friday, May 10, 2024, 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.
“I am pleased and honored to speak at the commencement ceremony for the next generation of Campbell Law leaders,” said Newby, who was first elected to the N.C. Supreme Court in 2004.
Newby is a longtime adjunct professor at the law school, where he teaches courses on state constitutional law and appellate practice.
“It is a time-honored tradition that the law school invites each sitting Governor and Chief Justice to speak at our commencement exercises during their tenure,” Leonard said. “I am pleased to announce that Justice Newby will continue this practice.”
Born in Asheboro, the North Carolina native was raised in Jamestown and earned a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy Studies from Duke University and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Newby began his law practice in Asheville with Van Winkle, Buck, Wall, Starnes and Davis P.A. and later served as vice president and general counsel of Cannon Mills Realty and Development Corp. in Kannapolis. In 1985, Newby was appointed as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina in Raleigh where he served for more than 19 years.
Newby is co-author of The North Carolina State Constitution with History and Commentary (2d ed. 2013) with Professor John V. Orth of the UNC School of Law. The North Carolina Bar Association honored Newby in 2011 with its Citizen Lawyer Award, and in 2012 he received its John McNeill Smith Jr. Award, recognizing his work in the area of constitutional rights and responsibilities. In recognition of his professional service, Newby has also received the James Iredell Award from Campbell Law and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Southern Wesleyan University.
Newby has worked to enhance professionalism among North Carolina’s lawyers having served as chair of the Commission on Professionalism. Newby co-chairs the Chief Justice’s Civic Education Initiative, traveling across North Carolina to meet with school and civic groups to discuss the Supreme Court and the role of the judiciary. He speaks to lawyers and judges from around the world about the American legal system and the rule of law, including groups of international parliamentarians and judges for the Open World Program, sponsored by the Library of Congress.
In addition to the J.D. degrees, U.K.’s Nottingham Trent University Law School will also confer degrees on the Master of Laws (LL.M.) graduates, who will be hooded by Deputy Dean Matthew Homewood. This novel degree is earned through a collaboration between Campbell Law and Nottingham Law schools.
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 4,800 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law is celebrating 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.