Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather encouraged 48 new Flex Program students to approach the law with integrity, purpose and a commitment to serving others during Convocation ceremonies Mon., Aug. 10, in Charlotte.
Forty-eight students in the third cohort of Elon Law’s Flex Program were welcomed into the academic, intellectual and professional legal community during Convocation ceremonies held this week in Charlotte.
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather delivered the Call to Honor, challenging students to consider not only what they hope to accomplish as lawyers, but whom their work will ultimately serve.
“The lawyer, and the law student, who demonstrates fidelity to the field is always in the fight because they are thinking of what someone else needs from them — fighting for someone else’s interest as if it were their own,” Merriweather said during ceremonies held Mon., Aug. 10, at Elon University’s Charlotte Center at 330 W. Tremont Ave. in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood.
Merriweather leads the district attorney’s office for North Carolina’s 26th Prosecutorial District, the state’s largest. His connection to Elon Law is also personal: his wife, Lila Riley L’10, is a member of the law school’s second graduating class.
Describing law as a vocation rooted in serving others, Merriweather reflected on experiences that shaped his own path, from witnessing lawyers pursue justice following a racially motivated killing in his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, to working with a grieving father as a first-year law student interning in the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office.
“Those who are fulfilled in this practice believe that it is something that we are called to do,” Merriweather said. “If you truly commit to pursuit of this practice, you do so because you believe that you have a charge to keep: to speak up for someone, and to tell someone’s story with full impact.”
Merriweather urged students to:
- Be ambitious, curious, studious and sharp, while never losing sight of the people the law is meant to serve.
- Build a reputation for integrity. Future clients and colleagues must be able to rely on a lawyer’s word, competence and credibility.
- Find your own sense of purpose in the law. When the work becomes difficult, Merriweather encouraged students to return to a simple question: “What are you here to do?”
The Flex Program allows students to earn a law degree through a part-time, in-person course of study designed for working professionals and place-bound students in the Charlotte region.
Flex Program Student Bar Association President Raygan Angel LF’28, a member of the program’s inaugural cohort, encouraged new students to build a supportive community rather than view classmates as competitors.
“The relationships you grow here will matter just as much as the cases you’re going to have to study,” Angel said. “So introduce yourself, form the study group, share an outline and celebrate each other’s wins instead of measuring yourself against them. The legal profession needs more lawyers who compete with integrity and lead with generosity.”
Vice Dean and Professor of Law Alan Woodlief opened the ceremony by recognizing the commitment required of Flex Program students, many of whom will balance full-time careers and other responsibilities with law school. He told the third cohort that faculty and staff “marvel at” and respect the work they have done to organize their lives around pursuing a legal education.
The ceremony concluded with an Elon tradition connecting the newest law students to the university’s name and history. “Elon” is the Hebrew word for oak. The university has long used the growth of an acorn into an oak tree as a symbol of education, transformation and individual potential.
Woodlief presented each student with an acorn as they crossed the front of the room, where Dean and Professor of Law Zak Kramer greeted them and shook their hands. The students will receive oak saplings at Commencement.
Kramer closed the ceremony by reflecting on the significance of the third Flex Program cohort and the community that has grown around the program. He also echoed Merriweather’s message about finding a calling in the law, urging students to lean into the law school experience and promising that Elon Law would take seriously their ambitions and dreams.
“Your calling is what brought you here, and our charge, as we see it, is to make sure that you can answer that call, whatever that call is,” Kramer said. “The call is up to you. We will follow it, and we will do everything we can to support you and launch you into your career.”
About Elon Law
Elon Law is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with a required, full-time Residency-in-Practice field placement for all full-time students during the winter or spring of their second year. The law school’s distinctive curriculum offers a logically sequenced program of professional preparation and is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides exceptional value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their careers.
Elon Law has graduated more than 2,000 alumni since opening its doors in 2006. Its annual enrollment now tops 500 students and the law school is regularly featured in the top tier of preLaw Magazine’s “Best Schools for Practical Training” rankings. In 2026, Elon Law received ABA approval to launch a full-time 2.5-year J.D. program on the campus of Queens University of Charlotte beginning in Fall 2027. The Elon Law Flex Program, a part-time, in-person program of legal study for place-bound students at Elon University’s Charlotte campus, welcomed its third cohort in Fall 2026.