Faculty and Staff
Faculty
 |
Name:
Joan G. Brannon |
| Title:
Adjunct Professor |
| Phone:
919.966.4178 |
| E-mail: brannon@sog.unc.edu |
| Area
of Interest: Clerks of court |
Joan Brannon joined the faculty at the Institute of Government in 1971. She 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.
 |
Name:
Michael Crowell |
| Title:
Professor of Public Law and Government |
| Phone:
919.966.4438 |
| E-mail: crowellm@sog.unc.edu |
| Areas
of Interest: Law of judicial administration; courts and judicial education; constitutional law; voting rights; alcoholic beverage control law |
Michael Crowell joined the School of Government faculty, for the second time, in 2007. He was initially on the faculty from 1970 to 1985, before entering private practice with Tharrington Smith LLP, in Raleigh, North Carolina. From 1994 to 1996 Crowell served as executive director of the Commission for the Future of Justice and the Courts in North Carolina. Crowell holds a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a law degree from Harvard University.
|
Name:
Shea Riggsbee Denning |
| Title:
Associate Professor of Public Law and Government |
| Phone:
919.843.5120 |
| E-mail: denning@sog.unc.edu |
| Areas
of Interest: Motor vehicle law, including legal aspects of impaired driving and driver’s license revocations |
Shea Denning joined the School of Government in 2003. Prior to that, she was an assistant federal public defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina and practiced law with the firm of King and Spalding in Atlanta, Georgia. Denning began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Malcolm J. Howard, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. She is a member of the North Carolina State Bar. Denning earned an AB in journalism and mass communication and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
 |
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; 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.
 |
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.
|
Name:
Cheryl Daniels Howell |
| Title:
Albert Coates 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.
 |
Name:
Dona G. Lewandowski |
| Title:
Lecturer of Public Law and Government |
| Phone:
919.966.7288 |
| E-mail: lewandowski@sog.unc.edu |
| Areas
of Interest:
Magistrates' issues (non-criminal law), including summary ejectment, small claims procedure, performing marriages, and appointment and removal matters |
Dona Lewandowski joined the faculty of the Institute of Government in 1985 and spent the next five years writing, teaching, and consulting with district court judges in the area of family law. In 1990, following the birth of her son, she left the Institute to devote full time to her family. She rejoined the School of Government in 2006. Lewandowski holds a BS and an MA from Middle Tennessee State University and a JD with honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After law school, she worked as a research assistant to Chief Judge R.A. Hedrick of the NC Court of Appeals.
|
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.
 |
Name:
John Rubin |
| Title:
Albert and Gladys Coates 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.
 |
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.
|
Name:
Jessica Smith |
| Title: Associate Professor of Public Law and Government |
| 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.
Staff
Susan Jensen joined the School of Government in 2008. In her role as program manager, she works with magistrates and new District Court judges. Jensen holds a BA from UNC-Chapel Hill in radio/TV/motion pictures and in political science, and an MA in political science from Appalachian State University.
Cindy Lee joined the School of Government in 2007. Prior to that, she was a program manager at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. In her role at the School of Government, she works primarily with District Court judges, but she also works with Superior Court judges, magistrates, clerks and assistant clerks of Superior Court, and district attorneys. Lee earned a bachelor's degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.
 |
Name: Audrey Williams |
| Title: Program Administrator, Judicial College |
| Phone: 919.966.4327 |
| E-mail: audrey@sog.unc.edu |
Audrey Williams joined the School of Government in 2003 as a program manager, and in 2007 she was named program administrator for the North Carolina Judicial College. Prior to joining the School, Williams was a professional development coordinator for Carolina Biological Supply Company. Williams holds a bachelor's degree in early education and a master's degree in liberal studies, both from UNC-Greensboro.
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