Featured image for post: N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Robin E. Hudson — Speaker For Constitution Day on September 19

N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Robin E. Hudson — Speaker For Constitution Day on September 19

WILSON, N.C. — September 9, 2016 — In keeping with Barton College’s focus on bold leaders and thinkers, the Willis N. Hackney Library on campus is pleased to host the Honorable Robin E. Hudson, Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, as the featured speaker for its annual Constitution Day reception and program. Justice Hudson’s presentation will address “Judicial Elections and Money: Why Our Courts are not For Sale.” After the presentation, a question-and-answer period will conclude the program. The event will be held Monday, Sept. 19, from 5-7 p.m. in the Learning Commons on the first floor of the library. The reception will begin at 5 p.m., and Justice Hudson’s presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. This event is open to the public free of charge and the community is encouraged to attend.

Constitution Day is traditionally celebrated each September 17 to mark the anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution on that date in 1787, but as September 17 falls on a Saturday this year, the commemoration of the 229th anniversary will be held on Monday instead.

North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Robin E. Hudson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and psychology from Yale University and a JD degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1976 and practiced law in Raleigh and Durham until elected to the Court of Appeals in November 2000.

She is the first North Carolina woman elected to the appellate court division without having been appointed first. Justice Hudson served on the N.C. Court of Appeals from January 2001 through December 2006. During that time, she helped organize and coordinate the Court of Appeals voluntary mediation program. She was elected to the Supreme Court and began her first eight-year term in January 2007. In 2014, she was re-elected to her current term, which runs through 2022.

Except for three years as assistant appellant defender in the mid 1980s, Justice Hudson practiced law in the private sector and handled a variety of trials and appeals, but concentrated on workers’ compensation and tort litigation, with particular emphasis on occupational disease and products liability, as well as criminal law. She practiced extensively before the Industrial Commission, as well as in all levels of State and Federal courts. From 1994 until she began serving on the Court of Appeals, she was certified to mediate cases from Superior Court and the Industrial Commission.

She has served on a variety of boards, professional associations, and commissions, including her appointment by the Chief Justice to the Family Court Advisory Committee in 2001. In addition, she has received a variety of awards and honors. In 2004, she received the Outstanding Appellate Judge Award from the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers (now Advocates for Justice); in 2005, she was awarded the Voices of Experience Recognition by the Gold Leaf Chapter of the Association of Business Women of America; in 2006 she received the Women of Achievement Award from the General Federation of Women’s clubs; and in 2008, she received the Gwyneth B. Davis Award for Public Services for the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys.

Justice Hudson was born in DeKalb County, Ga., but moved to Greensboro with her family in 1966. She is married and has two grown children, both second grade teachers, and one granddaughter.

For additional information about this event, please contact George Loveland, director of Hackney Library, at 252-399-6501 or gwloveland@barton.edu.

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