PLPL Program draws record 161 attorneys for wide-ranging public law training
Every fall, the School of Government hosts the Public Law for the Public’s Lawyers (PLPL) program to provide a high-level overview of a range of issues and legal developments relevant to attorneys who work in or with North Carolina state government. In 2025, the class was double last year’s size—with a record-breaking attendance of 161 attorneys participating in the live, synchronous course via Zoom.
Over three days and 12 sessions, attendees heard from legal experts about a breadth of topics—from sports betting to legal ethics; from digital dragnet usage by law enforcement to adult protection. What largely binds the content together is an overarching focus on legislative and executive branch information and issues.
Born out of a collaboration between the professional staff at the North Carolina General Assembly and the School of Government, the program is now led by faculty member Jeff Welty. At this year’s course, Welty was joined in leading sessions by the following School colleagues:
- Rebecca Fisher-Gabbard
- Joseph Hyde
- Robert Joyce
- Diane Juffras
- Chris McLaughlin
- Shea Riggsbee Denning
- Meredith Smith
- Kristina Wilson
School faculty were also joined by external legal experts as instructors in the program. The program provides North Carolina attorneys with 12 continuing legal education (CLE) hours —fulfilling the ethics, technology, professional well-being, and general hours. The state’s attorneys need to complete 24 hours of CLE every two-year reporting period.
The group of attorneys who attend come from many different walks of legal expertise—some focus on criminal matters, some on agriculture; others specialize in health or social services—but all have a common desire to learn from the faculty and each other about how to widen the lens of their legal knowledge, Welty said.
“Public lawyers are looking to broaden their expertise and get a glimpse into many different areas of the law—and this course definitely does that. It can be a little bit of a buffet; a smorgasbord of different topics.”
The agenda for this year’s program reflects that—spanning from legal review of state Supreme Court cases to unraveling the ethical complexities around a criminal homicide case (State of South Carolina v. Richard Alexander Murdaugh). Designing a curriculum to occupy such a wide intersection of public law can be challenging, said Welty, but the end result is more than worth it.
“It can be difficult—but also exciting—to find content that is beneficial for a wide range of public service lawyers,” he said. “But our goal is always the same: to provide all the required CLE hours in a program that is engaging and interesting.”
Though the content is sweeping in nature, the instructors themselves are deeply entrenched in and knowledgeable about their respective subject matter. PLPL attendees are not siloed into learning about one aspect of public law but rather hear from a range of professionals with substantial expertise across the public law sector.
“The real draw of the course is the quality of our instructors—which is really top-shelf,” Welty said. “They are deeply expert in their fields. The most consistent feedback we receive is that they are getting very high-quality sessions.”
Course evaluations from this year’s program tell the same story as Welty; participants overwhelmingly praised the course and its instructors for their intricate knowledge of the legal subject matter in which they are instructing.
“Every year I am impressed with the presentations—but this was the best year yet. I learned a lot and so much of it directly translates to my everyday work," one course participant wrote in their evaluation.
Another participant concurred in their assessment of the program, noting appreciation for its broad coverage of legal topics of interest to public attorneys.
“I appreciated the variety of topics. Even though not all presentations directly relate to my daily work, they were, nonetheless, engaging and useful.”
The on-demand version of the 2025 PLPL session, with all 12 sessions recorded, is now available for purchase for attorneys through January 31, 2026. Find more details at sog.unc.edu/courses/webinars/public-law-publics-lawyers-demand.
An agenda of this year’s program is available here.
Published November 20, 2025