Dean J. Rich Leonard featured in Yale Law Report

The Yale Law Report has published an alumni article featuring Campbell Law School Dean J. Rich Leonard as a member of the Class of 1976.

The article in the Winter 2026 edition written by Andrew J. Kyreakakis follows:

"Rich Leonard has led an illustrious career with major contributions to his home state of North Carolina, to our nation, and to other countries. After YLS, Rich served in one of North Carolina's premier federal clerkships and then worked briefly in private practice from 1978 to 1979 with one of the state's top law firms, Sanford, Adams, McCullough, and Beard.

At the age of 29, he was appointed the clerk of court of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, making him the youngest clerk in the federal system in the country. Rich reports that in that position, he had a front-row seat to some of the most sensational trials in North Carolina history. He served as a U.S. magistrate judge and thereafter was appointed as a U.S. bankruptcy court judge where he served for two decades. Rich also was a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management that implemented electronic filing nationally in the entire U.S. federal court system, including the establishment of PACER, the public access system to the federal courts.

In 2013 Rich was selected as the dean of Campbell Law School based in Raleigh. Under Rich's stewardship, Campbell has steadily grown in reputation and stature with a growing national ranking, consistently garnering awards in national law school competitions. Ninety-six percent of its graduates pass the bar, and the school's graduates are in great demand. Rich says that they continue to teach under the Socratic method, which reminds him of some of his days at Yale when he was called upon to engage. He recalls being terrified of Professor Ellen Peters '54 and was usually inept before her but proudly holding his own in interrogations by Professors Moore and Johnstone '51 JSD. The message Rich bestows on his law students is to always be guided by their moral compass, to never take any short cuts, and to diligently represent their future clients, always being fair and honest with them.

Over the past 40 years, Rich has also been working to help communities across the globe. He has visited Africa at least 75 times. Rich has been instrumental in helping organize the judicial systems of several African countries, including Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Kenya, and Nigeria. He has also taken his law students to Ghana, where the students were able to gain valuable firsthand experience learning about foreign justice systems.

During that trip, students and professors collaborated on how they could provide legal solutions and help implement them in the country. Rich has also provided additional opportunities for his students to study abroad in the summer. His law school partners with Samford Law School to host a five-week program in Cambridge, England, focusing on the law of Great Britain and the European Union, and collaborates with Baylor Law School to send students to the School of the Advocate in St. Andrews, Scotland. Rich teaches in both programs.

Rich is the author of three books: "The House by the Creek," based on his family history, which is set in North Carolina during the Revolutionary War; "From Welcome to Windhoek: A Judge's Journey," with highlights of his extraordinary life from his birthplace to the capital of the African country of Namibia; and "The Grandma Stories," a collection of stories set on his grandparents' rural dairy farm during the Depression.

The publisher of his second book perfectly synthesized the attributes and achievements of our eminent classmate. "This is the remarkable story of how a boy from rural Welcome, NC, grew up to become an innovative judge, global citizen, and go-to guy for court-building in emerging African nations. He has also run marathons, climbed mountains, forged cross-continental friendships, and embraced life in all its majesty."

Rich is also the proud father of three sons and two daughters and the happy grandfather of seven grandchildren.

Accolades have come his way. In 2023, Gov. Roy Cooper awarded him the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian award in North Carolina. In 2019-20, he served as president of the alumni association of his alma mater, the University of North Carolina. In 2018, the North Carolina Bar Association named him their McKnight Renaissance Lawyer of the Year. In 2014, North Carolina Weekly named him the North Carolina Lawyer of the Year. In 2013, the North Carolina Historical Preservation Society gave Rich the Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit in recognition of the two years spent overseeing the restoration of the historic federal courthouse in downtown Raleigh. In 2011, the American Bar Association gave him its prestigious Robert B. Yegge Award for Outstanding Contribution to Judicial Administration. And in 1992, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts made him the inaugural recipient of the Director's Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Federal Courts.

What makes Rich so special is his humility and his ability to remain grounded despite all his accomplishments and encomiums. An interesting fact about Rich: Yale Law School is the only law school to which Rich applied because he was attracted by the flexibility of the curriculum."

ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL

Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation's top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation's best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts more than 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2026, Campbell Law is celebrating 50 years of graduating legal leaders and 17 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina's Capital City.