RALEIGH – Campbell Law School held its annual appreciation luncheon for scholarship donors and their recipients on Thursday, March 6. More than 140 donors, alumni, students, faculty and staff members attended the event, including numerous distinguished Campbell Law alumni and former faculty members.
The event was hosted by Dean J. Rich Leonard, who is in his 12th year leading the law school.
“Thank all of you for joining us on what is a special day for the law school as we gather for only one purpose to profess our profound gratitude for your support of our students,” he said. “We couldn’t do it without you.”
The invocation was given by Student Bar Association (SBA) President Cole Hallum ‘22, ‘25, who is the recipient of the SBA Past Presidents Scholarship and the W.W. and Martha K. Small Law Scholarship. Hallum was recruited to Campbell University from California to play baseball and chose Campbell Law to pursue his legal education after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2016 and a Master of Education (MEd) degree in 2017.
“Thank you for providing us the opportunity to pursue a legal education,” he said. “Please bless the donors, the faculty and mentors and please guide us to seek justice and uphold the truth.”
Leonard provided a brief overview of some of the law school’s recent achievements including the continued success of the trial advocacy teams, strong employment numbers and an ultimate bar passage rate of 95 percent.
“We are enormously proud of our experiential education program,” he said. “We have increasingly come to believe that the key to lawyering is both our substantive legal curriculum and the experiences we give you in learning how to practice law. We will be by this fall up to eight full-service legal clinics scattered all across this community.”
Jessica McClellan ‘25, the Bobbie Newman Redding Law Scholarship recipient, was the first of two student speakers.
“I look around this room and I see not only the future of our legal profession but also the individuals who make this future possible,” she said. “I am here to advocate for the woman who hides her bruises with long sleeves, I’m here to advocate for the child who is bullied beyond repair, I’m here to advocate for the kids behind me so that they can have a better life, better opportunities and to advocate for the kids who come behind them. And I am here today because of you and because of your generosity to myself and my brilliant classmates, we are able to pursue what we love…each day I am grateful for the strong foundation I am building at Campbell law knowing it will equip me to make a meaningful difference to those I have the privilege to advocate for.”
Jessica Osborn ‘25, who is the recipient of the Hon. Ann Marie & Robert Calabria Law Scholarship, was the second student speaker.
“I would like to thank you all for being here,” she said. “It means so much to put a face to the one who provides our scholarships.”
Osborn, who began at Campbell Law as a FLEX JD student, added her path was unpaved and uncharted.
“When I applied to law school, I knew Campbell was my school of choice. When I walked in the door, I did so shaking, as a 36-year-old welder and mother of a 2-year-old daughter. What I learned very quickly is that being yourself is part of the job. Professor Jon Powell ‘08 taught me acceptance. I did know I wanted to speak for others and I wanted to make knowledge of the law accessible to others.”
Osborn continued, “I believe I am paying it forward because I will never be able to pay it back … We can spend years repaying you but we will be forever in your debt.”
The annual event is a significant one for the law school, as it provides an opportunity for scholarship donors and recipients to meet and interact, in many instances for the first time.
Dean Emerita and Professor Melissa Essary took the opportunity to spend time with her scholarship recipient, Brittany Swanger ‘27.
“It means the world to me to have lunch with my scholarship recipient Brittany is a first-year student and she is crushing it here, but more importantly she is the kind of person we want in the legal profession and I am so happy and honored to be with her here today,” Essary said.
Swanger added, “It’s not just the scholarship, but the continued support I feel from both of them throughout the year. It is a real privilege to be able to step out of the busyness of life and school and work and to be able to just connect because we all have one goal and that is my success.”
The luncheon serves as a platform for fellowship, as well as celebrating the hard work of law students throughout the academic year and the foresight of Campbell Law donors.
The scholarship luncheon photo gallery can be found on Campbell Law’s Facebook page at this link.
ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL
Since its founding in 1986, 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 nearly 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law celebrated 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 15 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina’s Capital City.
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