NC Central law school picks former state Supreme Court justice as new dean

Patricia Timmons-Goodson, the former North Carolina Supreme Court justice who was the first Black woman to serve on the state’s highest court, will be the new dean of the N.C. Central University School of Law in Durham, the university announced Monday.

She will begin the role July 1, succeeding the late Browne Lewis, who died last year while attending a conference in Colorado.

In a news release Monday, NCCU provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs David Jackson Jr. said he was “very elated” that Timmons-Goodson would be leading the law school, adding that he looks forward “to working with her and her team as we advance the mission of the law school by preparing a significant cadre of the nation’s future jurists.”

As dean, she “will be tasked with elevating the School of Law’s visibility, attractiveness and sustainability as an institution that prepares ‘practice ready’ law graduates who excel at the bar examination,” the news release stated.

She will develop the school’s leadership team, serve as chief academic officer and oversee “all aspects of academic life within the college.”

Decades-long law career in NC

Timmons-Goodson served at all levels of the North Carolina judicial system, working as an assistant district attorney in Fayetteville and as a staff attorney for Lumbee River Legal Services before ascending to the judge’s bench.

She became a district court judge in Cumberland County in 1984 and was reelected to the position three times. Former Gov. Jim Hunt appointed her to the state Court of Appeals in 1997, and after being elected by voters in 1998, she held her seat on that bench until 2005.

Former Gov. Mike Easley appointed Timmons-Goodson to the state Supreme Court in 2006, making her the fourth woman to serve on that court. She was elected by voters to remain on the court later that year, and held the seat until her retirement in 2012.

Former President Barack Obama in 2014 appointed Timmons-Goodson to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He later nominated her in 2016 as a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, but her nomination expired without confirmation by the Senate as Obama left office in 2017.

She ran to represent North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House in 2020, securing the Democratic nomination for the seat, but ultimately lost to Rep. Richard Hudson, the Republican incumbent.

Timmons-Goodson holds her bachelor’s and law degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill. She also holds a master’s degree in judicial studies from Duke University.