Leary Davis, dean of the Elon University School of Law, and several members of the law school’s advisory board participated in the annual Rule of Law conference July 26. The North Carolina Bar Association hosted the event at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.
Davis was joined by advisory board members A.P. Carlton, Jim Exum, Henry Frye, Jim Holshouser and Jim Hunt. Justice Ben Tennille of the North Carolina Business Court, which is housed at the Elon School of Law, also participated in the conference.
The conference brought together a distinguished interdisciplinary group of North Carolina leaders to discuss the importance of the rule of law.
Hunt delivered the keynote address, while Carlton moderated a panel discussion titled “Why the Rule of Law Matters in the Global Economy and in Our State.” Holshouser served as a panelist, along with Michael J. Gerhardt, the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, and Dr. Randall Williams, a Raleigh obstetrician who volunteers with Medical Alliance for Iraq, a nonprofit organization working with International Medical Corp. to advance health care in Iraq.
Carlton is a partner in the Raleigh firm Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and served as president of the American Bar Association in 2002-03. Exum served on the N.C. Supreme Court from 1974 to 1994, and was chief justice from 1986 to 1994. Frye served 14 years in the North Carolina legislature before his election to the N.C. Supreme Court in 1983. He served as chief justice in 1999-2000 and now practices with the Greensboro firm Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP. Holshouser, of Pinehurst, served as North Carolina governor from 1973 to 1977 and is senior partner with the Sanford Holshouser Law Firm LLP. Hunt served as governor from 1975 to 1983 and from 1993 to 2001. He is a partner with Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC in Raleigh.
Davis was appointed Founding Dean of the Elon
University School of Law in March 2005. He helped found
the Campbell University School of Law in 1975 and served
as dean until 1986.