Board Members
We highly value the insight and experience our board members bring to CCJR. If you are interested in contributing to our organization through a board membership, please e-mail our Board Chair, David Robinson, at drobinson@nexsenpruet.com.
|
DAVID S. ROBINSON, CHAIR
In almost three decades as a lawyer, David has assisted clients in cross-border transactions around the world. He has been to over 55 countries. He has run two US subsidiaries of foreign companies. In addition, he has been politically active in North Carolina for almost three decades. David has previously chaired the largest county voting operation (Wake County) in North Carolina and has voted in 30+ straight elections. He has held almost every volunteer office in the NC GOP; including County Party Chair, Congressional District Chair and NCGOP Assistant Treasurer (and one-time candidate for NCGOP Chairman). In 2016, he co-chaired the Kasich for President Campaign in North Carolina. In college and law school in Washington, DC, he got his political start on Capitol Hill with GOP congressional offices and the National Republican Congressional Committee. He has been a candidate for the NC Legislature and for the statewide elected office of Court of Appeals Judge.
|
David serves on more than a dozen boards and commissions, including as a member of the Board of Governors of the North Carolina Bar Association and a Director of the NC Bar Foundation. He has twice chaired a Bar Association Section and has been active in the Bar’s Haiti and Lawyer Exchange programs. He is an adjunct professor of Law at Campbell University where he teaches Business Organizations and Global Corporate Compliance. He is the Honorary Consul for Japan in North Carolina and currently chairs the North Carolina Consular Corps, representing the 22 heads of diplomatic missions in NC. David is also a Fellow of the Institute of Political Leadership, the BCBSNC Healthy Community Institute, Rotary International and the Consular Corps College. David lectures on topics as diverse as international trade and healthy marriages.
David is an active athlete. He is a competitive swimmer and has completed dozens of triathlons and road races including several marathons, a Half Ironman, and a Full Ironman Triathlon. He competed at the 2011 World Triathlon Championships in Beijing, China as a member of Team USA; and again in 2014 in Edmonton, Canada. He has qualified as a member of Team USA for the 2019 competition in Pontevedra, Spain. He is a member of an award-winning racecar team. He and his wife, Sue, have been married for 29 years.
David is an active athlete. He is a competitive swimmer and has completed dozens of triathlons and road races including several marathons, a Half Ironman, and a Full Ironman Triathlon. He competed at the 2011 World Triathlon Championships in Beijing, China as a member of Team USA; and again in 2014 in Edmonton, Canada. He has qualified as a member of Team USA for the 2019 competition in Pontevedra, Spain. He is a member of an award-winning racecar team. He and his wife, Sue, have been married for 29 years.
|
ROBERT H. EDMUNDS, JR.
Robert Edmunds, Jr., graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1975. Following service in the United States Navy as a line officer, he began practice in 1978 as an Assistant District Attorney in Guilford County, North Carolina.
He was hired as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, prosecuting federal felonies. In 1986, he was appointed United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina by President Ronald Reagan. During his tenure, Edmunds prosecuted such matters as international heroin smuggling and public corruption. He served as Chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Subcommittee on Guideline Sentencing. |
Edmunds entered private practice in 1993 with the Greensboro firm of Stern & Klepfer. His work focused on state and federal criminal law at both the trial and appellate levels. Based upon his skills and experience and passing the applicable examinations, he was named as a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in State and Criminal Law in 1993 and as a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Appellate Practice in 1994.
In 1998, Edmunds successfully ran for a seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Two years later, he was elected to the Supreme Court of North Carolina and re-elected in 2008. As a Justice, he authored opinions addressing all areas of the law. While on the bench, Edmunds earned a Master of Law in Judicial Process degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was a member of the adjunct faculty at Campbell University School of Law, teaching courses in appellate practice and appellate writing.
In 2004, United States Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Edmunds to be the only state judicial official on the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules to the Judicial Conference of the United States. In 2010, he was appointed to a second term on that Committee by Chief Justice Roberts. Edmunds has been active with various legal organizations. He was a member of and later chair of the Judges’ Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee. He served as member of the editorial board and later as co-editor of the American Bar Association’s Judges’ Journal. He was appointed Chair of the American Bar Association’s Appellate Judges Conference. He was named vice-president of the North Carolina Bar Association. In 2015, he was Program Chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute’s annual presentation.
In 1998, Edmunds successfully ran for a seat on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Two years later, he was elected to the Supreme Court of North Carolina and re-elected in 2008. As a Justice, he authored opinions addressing all areas of the law. While on the bench, Edmunds earned a Master of Law in Judicial Process degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He was a member of the adjunct faculty at Campbell University School of Law, teaching courses in appellate practice and appellate writing.
In 2004, United States Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Edmunds to be the only state judicial official on the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules to the Judicial Conference of the United States. In 2010, he was appointed to a second term on that Committee by Chief Justice Roberts. Edmunds has been active with various legal organizations. He was a member of and later chair of the Judges’ Advisory Committee to the American Bar Association’s Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee. He served as member of the editorial board and later as co-editor of the American Bar Association’s Judges’ Journal. He was appointed Chair of the American Bar Association’s Appellate Judges Conference. He was named vice-president of the North Carolina Bar Association. In 2015, he was Program Chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute’s annual presentation.
|
BARBARA JACKSON
Barbara Jackson served as an Associate Justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2011-2019. Before being elected to the Supreme Court, she was elected to the NC Court of Appeals and served from 2005-2010. She also worked as the General Counsel for the NC Department of Labor, Deputy General Counsel for the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons with Disabilities, Associate General Counsel to the Governor and as an Associate at Holk York McDarris LLP. She graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with her bachelor and law degrees. She also holds a Master of Laws in Judicial Studies from Duke University and a Legal Assistants degree from Meredith College.
|
She is a member of the NC State Bar, Co-Chair for the Technology Committee on North Carolina Commission on the Administration of Law and Justice, member of the American Bar Association (and was also a Fellow, State Chair for NC and Tech Committee Chair for the Appellate Judge’s Conference within the ABA) and a member and former Vice President of the NC Bar Association as well as the former Chair and Vice Chair of the Administrative Section of the NC Bar Association.
Among other memberships and accomplishments, she was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1992, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Carolina Women of Achievement Award 2012 and was a JEOPARDY! contestant in 1996.
Among other memberships and accomplishments, she was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 1992, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of North Carolina Women of Achievement Award 2012 and was a JEOPARDY! contestant in 1996.
|
JEANETTE K. DORAN
Jeanette Doran has served as President and General Counsel of the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law since returning to the Institute to reorganize and restart the organization in July 2019.
She started her career as a federal law clerk in the Middle District of North Carolina after graduating with honors from Campbell Law School. She then went to work in the appeals section of the Federal Public Defender as the Research and Writing Attorney where her work required her to appear before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 2004, Jeanette joined the staff of the School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill. The following year, she became staff attorney at NCICL, eventually becoming the Institute’s Executive Director in 2011. In December 2013, Jeanette was appointed by the then-Governor to serve as Chairman of the newly established Board of Review at the Division of Employment Security, Department of Commerce and completed her public service there in June 2019. |
Jeanette is an active member of the North Carolina Bar Association and the community. She served on the Appellate Rules Committee for ten years and, in 2012, was elected to serve on the Section Council leading the Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section of the Bar Association. Also, in 2012, she was appointed by the North Carolina House of Representatives to serve a two-year term of the Rules Review Commission and continues in that capacity today.
She is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, various federal district courts and all North Carolina Courts. She is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs and has published scholarly articles in law reviews, whitepapers and op-ed commentary.
She is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, various federal district courts and all North Carolina Courts. She is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs and has published scholarly articles in law reviews, whitepapers and op-ed commentary.
|
MARK E. EDWARDS
Mark is a Lawyer with Fields & Cooper, PLLC, a Law Firm in Nashville, North Carolina. He is a NC Board Certified Elder Law Specialist, Elder Law Section Member and Section Committee Member (Past & Present) for the NC Bar Association. Mark is also the Chairman of Nash County Republican Party. He attended Wake Forest University School of Law (1994-1997), where he was a Moot Court Board Member from ’95-’97 and on the Executive Council ’96-’97. Additionally, he was the Co-Chair of Stanley Moot Court Competition. He attended Wake Forest University from 1990-1994 and earned a B.A. in History.
|
|
ABRAHAM JONES
Abe Jones began his career as a federal law clerk in the United States District Court in the District of Columbia, followed by an appellate clerkship at the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Judge Jones then served as an assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina for four years before going into private practice in the District of Columbia. He returned to North Carolina in 1984 to serve as an assistant attorney general in the NC Department of Justice in the Medicaid fraud and tort claims section. He then served as an administrative law judge in the Office of Administrative Hearings before joining the law firm of Adams, McCullough, and Beard (now Parker Poe), where he worked for three years before starting his own law firm. Jones served as Wake County commissioner from 1990 to 1994. In 2020, he was elected by North Carolina's 38th District to serve in the NC House of Representatives.
|
|
AMANDA MASON
Amanda Mason provides services in family law, civil law and criminal defense matters for individuals and businesses. Since graduating law school from the University of Arizona in 2003, she has devoted her practice to representation throughout state and federal court, with an emphasis on assisting employers, professionals, banks and individuals with a broad range of litigation needs, both in and out of court. For domestic and family law matters, Amanda’s extensive courtroom experience allows her to help her clients navigate through the toughest of times. When facing separation, divorce or child custody issues, Ms. Mason aggressively protects and pursues her clients’ rights. Amanda’s criminal service offerings include representation on state and federal matters, including traffic, firearms, domestic violence, DWI, and drug/narcotic offenses.
|
|
FRANK BROSTROM
Frank R. Brostrom is a retired FBI Special Agent and seasoned federal investigator with over twenty-seven years of experience in high risk and complex federal law enforcement responsibilities to include extensive training and work in Civil Rights (Color of Law) Investigations; Public Corruption; International Terrorism and Intelligence environments; certification and expertise in Human Intelligence and Human Intelligence Operations; Mortgage and Bank Fraud; Money Laundering; Conspiracy; Interstate Fraud/Major Theft; International Art Crime; Evidence Collection and Preservation; and International Training.
|
Frank’s experience includes many years of extensive courtroom testimony in federal and state court proceedings, to include testifying as an Expert Witness. During the investigations and subsequent courtroom hearings and trials that Frank supported, he was intimately involved in Victim and Witness rights, protections and procedures. This included working with Confidential and Non-Confidential Government Witnesses and Victims. As part of his responsibilities Frank obtained continuing training and education in these specialty areas throughout his career.
|
JENNIFER GRAY
Jennifer Gray has been an attorney in Raleigh North Carolina for over 14 years. She has previous experience as an assistant district attorney, a Guardian ad Litem Attorney Advocate, and the Chief Attorney of the Criminal Legal Division for the Department of Insurance. As an Assistant District Attorney, for almost ten years she handled a wide range of victim related cases including domestic assaults to homicides. She also has experience serving on boards in her community including several years on the executive board for the Wake County Women’s Commission. She received the award for Women in Justice from Lawyers Weekly for her combined efforts with victim advocacy and community service. She is also a member of the Employment Collaborative Council which works with hiring managers across the state to advocate for employment for people with disabilities.
|