Judicial Authority and Administration
Courts and Judicial Administration Faculty
Areas of Expertise
Motor vehicle law, including legal aspects of impaired driving and driver’s license revocations
Profile
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, US 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.
Areas of Expertise
Child welfare, juvenile court
Profile
Sara DePasquale joined the School in May 2013. Previously, she was an attorney at Pine Tree Legal Assistance Inc., beginning her legal career there as a Skadden Fellow. For her last nine years at Pine Tree Legal, she was directing attorney of Maine's first and only children’s law project, KIDS LEGAL. She served as an adjunct professor with the University of Maine School of Law teaching juvenile law. She is a member of the North Carolina State Bar, State of Maine Bar, the U.S. District Court of Maine Bar, and the U.S. First Circuit Bar. DePasquale received a BA with honors in history and sociology from Binghamton University, is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Buffalo School of Law, and also earned a dual degree with an MSW in child welfare/family systems from the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.
James C. Drennan
Areas of Expertise
Court administration and leadership; ethics and professionalism; fairness and bias
Profile
Jim Drennan joined the School of Government (then the Institute of Government) in 1974. He teaches and advises on court administration issues, judicial ethics and fairness, criminal sentencing, and judicial leadership. Drennan is also responsible for the School’s educational programs for clerks of superior court and court administrators.While on leave from 1993 through 1995, he served as director of the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts. He is a member of the North Carolina State Bar, the American Bar Association, and the National Association of State Judicial Educators. Drennan earned a BA from Furman University and a JD from Duke University, where he served on the editorial board of the Duke Law Journal.
Cheryl Daniels Howell
Areas of Expertise
Judicial education, court structure and procedure, family law, domestic violence, and civil procedure
Profile
Cheryl Howell joined the School of Government (then 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 teaches, consults, and writes about family law and other issues, and she works with the NC Association of District Court Judges and the North Carolina Judicial College in planning and coordinating judicial branch education programs. She is a member of the North Carolina Bar Association. 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, and also serves as a member of the NC Child Custody and Visitation Mediation Advisory Committee, appointed by the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts. 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.
Areas of Expertise
Criminal law and procedure, especially community corrections and sentencing law
Profile
Jamie Markham joined the School of Government faculty in 2007. His area of interest is criminal law and procedure, with a focus on the law of sentencing, corrections, and the conditions of confinement. Markham earned a bachelor's degree with honors from Harvard College and a law degree with high honors, Order of the Coif, from Duke University, where he was editor-in-chief of the Duke Law Journal. He is a member of the North Carolina Bar. Prior to law school, Markham served five years in the United States Air Force as an intelligence officer and foreign area officer. He was also a travel writer for Let's Go Inc., contributing to the Russia and Ukraine chapters of Let's Go: Eastern Europe.
Areas of Expertise
Criminal law and procedure; public defender training; evidence; indigent defense; domestic violence; subpoenas
Profile
John Rubin joined the School of Government in 1991. He previously practiced law for nine years in Washington, DC 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; teaches and consults with judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and other officials in the criminal justice system; and manages the School’s indigent defense education program. 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. In 2008, he was awarded a two-year distinguished professorship for faculty excellence. In 2012, he was named Albert Coates Professor of Public Law and Government. Rubin earned a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Meredith Smith
Areas of Expertise
Clerks of Superior Court
Profile
Meredith Smith joined the School of Government in 2013. Previously, she was an associate with the law firm of McGuireWoods LLP in Charlotte, where she practiced with the real estate, corporate, and restructuring and insolvency groups on matters related to a wide range of issues including commercial loan modifications, foreclosures, bankruptcy, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial leasing, and real estate purchase and sale contracts. Smith earned a BA in political science and Spanish, with distinction, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a law degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University School of Law, where she was a member of the American Criminal Law Review.
Areas of Expertise
Criminal law and procedure; evidence; prosecutor training; police attorneys
Profile
Jeff Welty joined the School of Government in 2008. Prior to that, he completed a federal judicial clerkship, spent eight years in private practice, and served as a Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School. Welty holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in economics and a JD, with highest honors, from Duke University, where he was executive editor of the Duke Law Journal.