Campbell Law Sidebar may 2024

Campbell Law School made history on May 10, when it conferred 173 Juris Doctor degrees — the largest number in the law school’s 46 graduations — during its 46th hooding and graduation ceremony at Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts. “Standing here in my 11th year as your dean, I have enormous confidence in the superb quality of our legal education program,” Dean J. Rich Leonard told the graduates. “You are ready. I hope you leave here with a fervent commitment to the rule of law, that it is only through belief in and loyalty to our common system that our problems can be fairly addressed. I hope you understand that truth cannot be manufactured but is objective, and no process has ever been better at finding truth than our legal system. As you spread out across big firms and small, big cities and small hamlets, private, public, academic and corporate positions, I hope you leave here as warriors for democracy and for justice.” Learn more at this link.

Campbell Law Reunions 2024

Campbell Law welcomed more than 200 alumni back to campus on Saturday, May 4, for its annual alumni class reunions activities. Classes of 1979, 1984, 1994, 1999, 2014 and 2019 and their guests descended upon Raleigh for events at the law school and a plated dinner at the N.C. Museum of Sciences. Morning activities at the law school included tours of the building, a “State of the Law School” presentation by Dean J. Rich Leonard, a panel discussion featuring directors of our pro bono clinics moderated by Dean Emerita Melissa Essary, a barbecue lunch and some family fun activities. The evening capped off a near yearlong fundraising and engagement effort undertaken by law school administrators and volunteer committees from each class. During the dinner program Dean Leonard was presented with a check for $409,135 representing funds that were donated by class members to the law school throughout the 2024 fiscal year. Learn more at this link.

Campbell Law’s trial advocates come in 5th in national GAVEL Rankings

Campbell Law School’s Competitive Trial Advocacy Program ranks fifth in the nation in the most recent GAVEL Rankings. Campbell Law School’s Competitive Trial Advocacy Program ranks fifth in the nation in the most recent GAVEL Rankings. The GAVEL Rankings, according to it's creator Professor Jared Rosenblatt, have three goals: to recognize excellent trial competition results; to give smaller programs a real chance to be recognized; and to acknowledge schools winning the toughest competitions. Learn more at this link.

Mallory Underwood promoted to Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development

Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced the promotion of Mallory Underwood to the law school’s senior staff. Underwood, who has served as Director of the Career Services and Professional Development Center since January 2022, will serve Campbell Law students and alumni as the new Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development beginning May 27, 2024. The Center helps match students and recent graduates with employers for internships and jobs. As director, she advised students on all aspects of professional development and career planning. “Those of you who have worked with Mallory in her time here know that this is an outstanding promotion,” Leonard said. “As Dean Underwood, she will continue to push the envelope to create terrific opportunities for all of our students. Please join me in congratulating her. We will move immediately to fill her former position as director.” Learn more at this link.

Sydney Kraft ’24 returns to Top Gun National Mock Trial Competition

Campbell Law’s Sydney Kraft ’24 of Fayetteville has been selected to return to compete in the 2024 Top Gun National Mock Trial Competition in June, hosted by Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas. The competition is an innovative, invitation-only mock trial tournament where the single best advocates from the 16 top trial advocacy schools across the nation go head-to-head for the honor of being designated as “Top Gun.” This Top Gun Competition is Campbell Law’s 10th time securing an invitation to this prestigious tournament. Previously, Campbell Law has had two final four finishes by Andrew Shores ’13 and Kaitlin Rothecker ’15, and two championship victories by Jacob Morse ’17 and Tatiana Terry ’19. Morse, who is the only other Campbell Law representative to have represented the law school twice at Top Gun, is Kraft’s coach. Susannah Horton ’24 will accompany Kraft to the competition, said Director of Competitive Advocacy Mary Ann Matney ’17. Learn more at this link.

Campbell Law to host Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellows

This summer, Campbell Law will become the second law school in North Carolina to host Justice John Paul Stevens Fellows. Due to the generous support of Campbell Law alumnus Charlie Rawls ’82 and his wife, Deanne Maynard, with a matching grant from Campbell Law School, the law school will be administering two $5,000 stipends to first-year students Hailey Larock ’26 and Sylvia Hopkins ’26 during the summer of 2024. Larock will be working for the Wake County Public Defender’s Office and Hopkins will spend her summer with N.C. Guardian ad Litem. Learn more at this link.

Wallace Fellows come away with lessons in leadership, character and being a neighbor

Campbell Law's Wallace Fellow for Public Service Brigitte Kelly '23 was among students from medicine, law, pharmacy, public health and Campbell’s physician assistant program, who took part in this year’s Wallace Fellowship, which is designed to “challenge students and faculty to accept the call to servant leadership through recognition, support and encouragement” through coursework (taught by Dr. Jerry Wallace), internships and other projects. Learn more at this link.

Students receive inaugural rural public interest stipends

At least 45 counties in North Carolina are considered “legal deserts,” which are defined as places where there are less than one lawyer per 1,000 residents. But thanks to the support from NC IOLTA, three Campbell Law School students will receive stipends in the amount of $10,000 to provide services to counties designated as legal deserts in the summer of 2024, according to April Giancola, the law school’s former Assistant Dean of Career and Professional Development. The three students who will receive awards are Garrett Anderson ’25 of Raleigh, who will be working for the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina; Madison Bennett ’25 of Raleigh, who will be working for N.C. Prisoner Legal Services; and Stephanie Moore ’26 of Greenville, who will be working with the N.C. Public Defender’s Office District 2 in Washington. Learn more at this link.

Campbell Law Spotlights