Resources for North Carolina District Court Judges

 

contacts

Joan G. Brannon Name: Joan G. Brannon
Title: Charles Edwin Hinsdale Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4178
E-mail: brannon@sog.unc.edu
Area of Interest: Civil duties of sheriffs

Joan Brannon joined the faculty at the Institute of Government in 1971. She advises public officials on the civil duties of sheriffs. She recently served on the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence and presently serves on the Administrative Office of the Courts' Forms and Rules of Recordkeeping Committees. Her many publications include The Judicial System in North Carolina. Brannon earned a BA from Smith College and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

James C. Drennan Name: James C. Drennan
Title: Albert Coates Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4160
E-mail: drennan@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Director, North Carolina Judicial College; the court system, including structure, administration, procedure, and personnel; legal responsibilities of clerks of court; legal aspects of driving while impaired; driver license revocations; community corrections; legal aspects of nonprofit organizations; pattern jury instructions; alcohol beverage control law; North Carolina constitution

Jim Drennan joined the Institute of Government in 1974. He is a member of the North Carolina State Bar, the American Bar Association, and the National Association of State Judicial Educators. While on leave in the 1990s, he served as director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts for three years. His consulting activities include work with the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles, the Division of Community Corrections of the North Carolina Department of Correction, and the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts. His recent writings have focused on impaired driving, judicial administration (court security, privacy and open records issues, and jurisdiction issues) and legal aspects of nonprofit organizations that have dealings with local governments. Drennan earned a BA from Furman University and a JD from Duke University.

Robert L. Farb Name: Robert L. Farb
Title: Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4375
E-mail: farb@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Criminal law and procedure; police attorneys; evidence

Bob Farb joined the Institute of Government in 1976. He is responsible for conducting educational programs for North Carolina prosecutors and regularly teaches judges, magistrates, police attorneys, law enforcement officers, and others who work in the criminal justice system. His publications include Arrest, Search, and Investigation in North Carolina; North Carolina Capital Case Law Handbook; North Carolina Prosecutors' Trial Manual; and Arrest Warrant and Indictment Forms. He is responsible for maintaining the School of Government's criminal law Web site and its listserv, which sends subscribers information on new criminal cases and legislation. Farb earned a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Cheryl Daniels Howell
Name: Cheryl Daniels Howell
Title: Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4437
E-mail: howell@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Courts; family law; judicial education

Cheryl Howell joined the Institute of Government in 1992. Prior to that, she practiced law in Winston-Salem and Fayetteville and worked as a research assistant to Chief Judge R.A. Hedrick of the NC Court of Appeals. Currently, Howell works with the NC Association of District Court Judges in planning and coordinating their judicial education programs. She is a member of the NC Bar Association and the NC Association of Women Attorneys. She also has served as a member of the Family Court Advisory Committee, appointed by the Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court, since its creation in 1998. Her publications include articles and bulletins relating to family law and family court, as well as chapters created for the Trial Judges’ Bench Book, District Court edition. Howell earned a BA, magna cum laude, from Appalachian State University and a JD, with honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Janet Mason
Name: Janet Mason
Title: Gladys Hall Coates Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4246
E-mail: mason@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Juvenile law; social services law; adoption; marriage law

Janet Mason joined the Institute of Government in 1982. Prior to that, she practiced law for seven years with legal services programs in North Carolina. Before law school she worked as a social worker in Baltimore and as a juvenile court counselor in Orange County. She has served on and chaired the university's Faculty Grievance Committee, the Chancellor's Advisory Committee, and the Committee on University Government. She also served on the Administrative Board of the School of Social Work. Recent publications include a Special Series bulletin, Confidentiality in Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings; an article in Popular Government about North Carolina marriage laws; Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect in North Carolina, Second Edition; and the 2005-2006 edition of North Carolina Juvenile Code and Related Statutes, published by LexisNexis. Mason earned a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

John Rubin Name: John Rubin
Title: Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.962.2498
E-mail: rubin@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Criminal law and procedure; public defender training; evidence; indigent defense; domestic violence; subpoenas

John Rubin joined the Institute of Government in 1991. Prior to that, he practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. At the School he specializes in criminal law and indigent defense education. He has written several articles and books on criminal law, including the North Carolina Defender Manual, and he designs and teaches in numerous training programs each year for indigent defenders. He is a frequent consultant to the Office of Indigent Defense Services, which is responsible for overseeing and enhancing legal representation for indigent defendants and others entitled to counsel under North Carolina law. Rubin earned a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

John L. Saxon Name: John L. Saxon
Title: Professor of Public Law and Government
Phone: 919.966.4289
E-mail: saxon@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Social services law; child support; elder law; family policy

John Saxon joined the Institute of Government in 1992. Prior to that, he worked for 15 years as an attorney for the US Senate and the US Department of the Interior, and as a legal services lawyer in South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina. He is the editor of North Carolina Legislation 1997 and North Carolina Legislation 1998, co-author of The Law and the Elderly in North Carolina, and he has written a number of articles and bulletins regarding welfare reform, social services, child support, and elder law. In 2004 the result of Saxon's research on faith-based social services initiatives were published in Popular Government. Saxon earned a BA from Auburn University and a JD from Antioch School of Law in Washington, DC.

Jessica Smith
Name: Jessica Smith
Title: Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Associate Professor for Teaching Excellence
Phone: 919.966.4105
E-mail: smithj@sog.unc.edu
Areas of Interest: Criminal law and procedure; judicial education; bail and pretrial release; evidence; post-conviction procedure

Jessie Smith joined the Institute of Government in 2000. Prior to that, she practiced law at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. She also clerked for U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and for Senior U.S. Circuit Judge J. Dickson Phillips Jr. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. At the School of Government, Smith teaches and consults with judges and other public employees involved in the criminal justice system. She is the 2006 recipient of the Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Term Professorship for Teaching Excellence. Smith earned a BA, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania and a JD, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was managing editor of the Law Review.