HIGH POINT, N.C., March 21, 2024 – The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently held oral arguments on High Point University’s campus, marking the appellate court’s first visit to HPU since the university started the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law.
Two panels, each consisting of three judges from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, convened inside the Callicutt Life Skills Theater on March 14. The judges listened and asked questions as attorneys for two cases – one criminal and one civil – argued that rulings by lower courts should be reversed.
“We were honored to host the North Carolina Court of Appeals for the first time during HPU’s centennial year,” said Mark Martin, founding dean of the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law. “Moving forward, we hope to host oral arguments each year in order to enhance our students’ understanding of the appellate process.”
HPU Police Chief Debra Duncan served as the bailiff for the oral arguments. She opened each of the two hour-long sessions reserved for oral arguments by banging a gavel and asking the community members and HPU faculty, staff and students in the audience to stand as the judges entered the theater.
“I’m going to do anything I can to help the law school and the students, and I thought this was a great opportunity to be able to help,” Duncan said.
The oral arguments also turned out to be a bit of a reunion for Duncan, who is an attorney in addition to serving as HPU’s police chief. She was sworn into the North Carolina State Bar in 2017 by Jeffery Carpenter, one of the six appellate judges who visited HPU.
HPU President Nido Qubein announced in the spring of 2022 that the university was opening a new law school as part of a $400 million academic expansion. Since then, the law school has grown its faculty and continued preparing to welcome its inaugural class of students this upcoming fall.
In September, HPU broke ground on a new three-story, 77,000-square-foot facility that will be the permanent home of the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law. The building will provide students with a realistic-looking setting to practice their skills and knowledge as attorneys.
“Our first session of Court at High Point University was an extraordinary success,” said Chris Dillon, chief judge for the North Carolina Court of Appeals. “We look forward to holding oral arguments in the new HPU law building on our next visit.”
Rachel Webster, who is part of the law school’s inaugural class, decided to take a day off from work and make the one-hour drive from her home in Salisbury, North Carolina, to attend the oral arguments inside Congdon Hall.
Webster said she found it interesting to listen to the different attorneys argue on behalf of their clients and see firsthand how the appeals process works.
“I had come to a couple of law school events, and I had never really experienced anything like that. A couple of people recommended that I attend, and so I took the day off work and decided to come,” Webster said. “It was just a really neat event. It gives me a little bit more insight of what I’m going to be getting into.”