Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
Early Years
Personal Information
Married to Susan Awbrey Hunter. One son, Robert Neal Hunter III; two step-sons, Chris Awbrey Steele and Alan Baret Steel; two grandchildren; Member of First Presbyterian Church, Greensboro, North Carolina
Partner, Robinson & Lawing, LLP
When Mike Robinson was six years old, he wrote a brief essay in school about what he wanted to be when he grew up. While the other kids in his class wanted to be firemen, cowboys, ballerinas and football players, Mike knew he wanted to be a lawyer and one day a judge. Since that time, he never wavered from those goals. Today, Mike has a distinguished law career and recently announced his candidacy for the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
For over 33 years, Mike has practiced law in North Carolina. In 1997, he was one of nine lawyers who formed, Robinson & Lawing, LLP. For the past six years he has served as one of its managing partners. Mike has concentrated his practice on matters involving complex civil litigation, medical malpractice defense, insurance defense, intellectual property matters, and corporate litigation planning and loss prevention. Mike is admitted to practice in North Carolina State Courts, the three U.S. District Courts in North Carolina, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Mike has served in numerous volunteer capacities with a number of charitable and civic organizations within the community.
Mike is a conservative who believes that judges do not make laws, but rather should enforce them. If elected to the North Carolina Supreme Court, Mike will be tough but fair and will apply the law as written by the state legislature. He will work hard to examine every case that comes before him and take a level-headed approach to his work.
Mike received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College and his juris doctor degree with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mike and his wife Wynn have lived in Winston-Salem for the past 33 years. They have four grown children (three sons and a daughter), two daughters-in-law and two granddaughters.
Founding Dean & Professor, Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law at High Point University
Hon. Mark Martin is the founding dean and professor of law at the Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law at High Point University.
Mark served as Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2014-2019. He also served on that Court as an Associate Justice, on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and on a North Carolina Superior Court.
The Chief Justice of the United States appointed Mark to the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the United States Judicial Conference. He also served on the board of directors of the Conference of Chief Justices.
Mark chairs the Thomson Reuters Judicial Advisory Council. He is a member of the American Law Institute, where he assists with the Third Restatement, Conflict of Laws, and serves on the Region 15 Advisory Committee.
Mark has served on the adjunct faculties of Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina law schools. Mark co-taught a course on the various modes of constitutional interpretation with Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court from 2020-2022.
North Carolina Court of Appeals
Sam J. Ervin, IV, was born in Morganton, North Carolina, on November 18, 1955. He attended the public schools in Burke County, North Carolina, graduating from Freedom High School in 1974. In 1978, Judge Ervin was awarded an A.B., magna cum laude, from Davidson College. After graduating from Davidson, he attended Harvard Law School, from which he received a J.D., cum laude, in 1981.
From 1981 until 1999, Judge Ervin practiced law with the Morganton, North Carolina firm of Byrd, Byrd, Ervin, Whisnant, McMahon, P.A., and its predecessors. While in private practice, Judge Ervin handled a wide variety of civil, criminal, and administrative matters, including many appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of North Carolina.
In 1999, Judge Ervin was nominated for a seat on the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. He was nominated for a second term on the Utilities Commission by Governor Michael F. Easley in 2007. Both appointments were confirmed by the General Assembly. The Utilities Commission is a quasi-judicial body that is responsible for regulating electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water and sewer, and certain types of transportation service provided to retail customers in North Carolina by privately-owned entities. During his service as a member of the Utilities Commission, Judge Ervin was involved in deciding many important regulatory matters, including, but not limited to, electric and natural gas rate proceedings, electric and natural gas business combination proceedings, proceedings involving applications by electric utilities for authority to construct new generation and transmission facilities, proceedings involving the approval of telecommunications price regulation plans, proceedings arbitrating or otherwise examining the terms and conditions under which competitive telecommunications providers were allowed to interconnect with incumbents, and proceedings addressing issues relating to the adequacy of water and sewer service in certain specific locations.
In addition, Judge Ervin was extensively involved in the activities of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), having served as Chairman of that organization's Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues and Waste Disposal from 2002 until 2005; as Chairman of that organization's Committee on Electricity from 2004 until 2007; and as a member of its Task Force on Climate Policy from 2007 through 2008. As part of his involvement in NARUC, Judge Ervin supervised its participation in the process that led to the implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. While a member of the Utilities Commission, Judge Ervin testified on two different occasions before the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality of the Committee on Commerce of the United States House of Representatives. Judge Ervin was a regular speaker at energy-related conferences and seminars during his service as a Utilities Commissioner.
Judge Ervin has also been, at various times, involved in a wide variety of church-related, bar-related, and charitable activities. He is married to Mary Temple Ervin and has two children and two step-children.
Judge Ervin was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals at the November 4, 2008, general election. His term as a member of the Court of Appeals commenced on January 1, 2009, and extends until December 31, 2017.
Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
Early Years
Born in DeKalb County, Georgia in 1952, Robin E. Hudson moved to Greensboro, NC with her family in 1966.
Professional Background
Admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1976 and practiced law in Raleigh and Durham until her election 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. She served on the NC Court of Appeals from January 2001 until December 2006. During that time, she helped organize and coordinate the Court of Appeals voluntary mediation program. She began her 8-year term on the Supreme Court in January 2007.
Except for 3 years as assistant appellant defender in the mid-1980's, she 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 diseases and products liability. She practiced extensively before the Industrial Commission, as well as in State and Federal courts. Since 1994, she has been certified to mediate cases from Superior Court and the Industrial Commission.
Graduate of Page Senior High School, Greensboro, 1969. Graduated from Yale University in 1973 with a BA degree in philosophy and psychology. Received J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1976.
Seventh Division of the Superior Court, North Carolina
Judge Eric Levinson joined the District Attorney’s Office in Cabarrus and Rowan Counties, N.C. as a felony prosecutor following law school, and he prosecuted drug, property, sexual assault, and homicide offenders.
Judge Eric Levinson was elected to the N.C. judiciary in 1996 as a District and Family Court Judge in Charlotte, N.C. In this role, he was recognized for implementing best-practices in our criminal and child support enforcement courts and became a N.C. Certified Juvenile Court Judge.
Judge Eric Levinson was elected statewide in 2002 as one of fifteen members of the N.C. Court of Appeals in Raleigh, N.C., where he served as an Associate Judge and the Court’s youngest member. He authored hundreds of legal opinions in disputes and lawsuits concerning criminal, civil and administrative matters.
Judge Eric Levinson was appointed by the Bush Administration in 2007 as the Justice Attache to Iraq for the U.S. Department of Justice. As Justice Attache, Levinson managed the U.S. government’s diplomatic relationship with the Iraqi judiciary and its Chief Justice, Medhat al Mahmoud, and advanced the establishment of Major Crimes Courts where terrorists were prosecuted.
Judge Eric Levinson worked in Kabul, Afghanistan as a Rule of Law and Courts Advisor in 2008. In this role, he collaborated with members of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan and helped draft and advance guidelines to establish commercial courts to adjudicate business, contract and related civil conflicts.
Judge Eric Levinson was appointed to the N.C. Superior Court in 2009 after a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers, business professionals, attorneys and community stakeholders endorsed his appointment. Levinson presently holds court in counties all across western, central and eastern N.C. and presides over violent crimes against persons (homicide, sexual assault, armed robbery, serious assault) as well as civil conflicts (complex business disputes, class action, property).
Judge Eric Levinson gained his Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law where he was President of the Student Bar Association. He obtained a BBA in Finance,cum laude, at the University of Georgia, where he was an Honors Program student. Levinson also completed the Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems through the Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C. and Georgetown University, and completed a program in International Finance hosted by the University of London, England. He is a certified Superior Court mediator, and is a N.C. Certified Juvenile Court Judge.
Fmr. Chief Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
Chief Justice Cheri Beasley has spent more than 20 years dedicated to the rule of law. She began her judicial career as a district court judge in Cumberland County, where she served for a decade before being elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals in 2008. She served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court of North Carolina for seven years before being appointed by Governor Roy Cooper to lead the Supreme Court and North Carolina's third branch of government, the Judicial Branch. She is the first African-American woman in the Supreme Court’s 200-year history to serve as Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Beasley has spent her entire career advocating for courts that are independent, fair, and accessible, and that serve every person with dignity and respect. As Chief Justice, she is advocating for a court system that not only solves legal disputes, but also helps people better their lives. By engaging local judges, educators and law enforcement, she is helping to reform discipline in our schools and keeping kids out of our courtrooms. She is committed to expanding specialized treatment courts that better serve the needs of North Carolina’s children and families. She is also working to leverage the power of technology to make sure our courts are efficient and accessible.
She has lectured extensively to promote the administration of justice, the importance of an independent judiciary, and fair judicial selection. She is active in her community through leadership in her church, First Baptist of Raleigh, her support of hunger relief efforts, and her mentoring of students from elementary school to law school. She is a graduate of Douglass College of Rutgers University, the University of Tennessee College of Law, and Duke University School of Law where she obtained her LL.M. She and her husband, Curtis Owens, are the proud parents of twin sons, Thomas and Matthew.
Vice President of Marketing and Communications, John Locke Foundation
As Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Donna shares the foundation’s message of freedom, free markets, and limited government across media platforms. She co-hosts Carolina Journal Radio, a weekly syndicated radio show produced by JLF and heard on more than a dozen stations across North Carolina. Donna came to JLF in 2003 after freelance writing for Carolina Journal and contributing to projects for the North Carolina Education Alliance. Her career has been spent in marketing, public relations, and broadcasting, and includes time at UNC-TV and The Arizona Republic, the daily newspaper serving metropolitan Phoenix. Donna is a graduate of Arizona State University and is married to Rick Martinez. She and Rick co-host “You Don’t Say,” a daily radio talk show heard on NewsRadio 680 WPTF in the Triangle.
Sr Corporate Counsel, Cisco Systems, Inc.
President and General Counsel, Public Interest Legal Foundation
J. Christian Adams is the President and General Counsel of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. He served from 2005 to 2010 in the Voting Section at the United States Department of Justice Voting Section. President Trump appointed Adams to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. President Trump also appointed Adams as a Commissioner to the United States Commission on Civil Rights where he also now serves with a term through 2025. He has been involved in election law lawsuits in 33 states and the territory of Guam. He has represented multiple presidential campaigns in election litigation. He has a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He is a member of the South Carolina and Virginia Bars.
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