Seminar Presenters
Bridgett Britt Aguirre: Ms. Aguirre graduated from Campbell University Law School in 1989. She began her legal career while in law school by working as a research
assistant to Professor Lynn Buzzard at Campbell Law School. Ms. Aguirre then worked as a legal intern for 2 years in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Ms. Aguirre next worked as an associate with Stephens Law Offices in Fuquay-Varina. She opened Aguirre Law Office in May of 1994. She has always concentrated in criminal defense, but for the last 10 years, it has been exclusive in her practice. Ms. Aguirre is a past president of the Wake County Academy of
Criminal Trial Lawyers and past chair of ReEntry, Inc. of Wake County. .
Janet H. Callihan: Ms. Callihan is a Deputy Clerk for the Clerk’s Office, Eastern District of North Carolina.
Gary Christopher: Mr. Christopher has been First Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland for fourteen years. His practice is limited to federal felony defense, with an emphasis on death penalty litigation. Before joining the Federal Public Defender, Gary was a staff attorney with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender for fourteen years, five years of which were spent as chief attorney of the Office of Public Defender’s Capital Defense Division. He is a 1979 graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School.
Frederick H. Cohn: Mr. Cohn is a New York Criminal Defense lawyer and has
practiced for over forty years in the federal courts. Among the many positions he has held are: Criminal Justice Act representative to the Defender Services Division of the Administrative Office; Member of the Defender Services Advisory Group for the
Administrative Office representing the First and Second Circuits; Chief representative to the Administrative Office and Liaison to the Defender Services Committee of the
James B. Craven, III: Mr. Craven has practiced in Durham since 1969, after service as a law clerk in the Eastern District of Virginia and then with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. He is the husband of Sara, the father of Jamie, Joe and Will, and the grandfather of Olivia and Harris. As partial compensation for Tom
McNamara having lured his son Joe away, Jim is now Of Counsel to the Federal Public Defender in Raleigh. His was trained, after a fashion, at the U.S. Naval Academy, UNC-Chapel-Hill, Duke Law School, and the Duke Divinity School, and is a retired naval officer, a lawyer and an Episcopal priest.
Devon Donahue: Ms. Donahue is an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
G. Alan DuBois: Mr. DuBois is the Senior Appellate Attorney with the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He graduated from Duke University in 1984 and the University of Virginia School of Law in 1987. In 1989, after two years as a staff law clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, he joined the Federal Public Defender’s Office. Mr. DuBois recently spent nine months working in Washington, DC; he spent six months with the United States
Sentencing Guideline Commission and three months with the Office of Defender Services.
Rosemary Godwin: Ms. Godwin graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1980 and from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at Campbell University in 1991. She was in private practice in Raleigh, North Carolina until March 31, 2008 when she joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina as an Assistant Federal Public Defender.
Stephen C. Gordon: Mr. Gordon is an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He has been with the Public Defender’s Office since 1997. Prior to that, Mr. Gordon worked with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, in Atlanta, Georgia. He clerked on the North Carolina Court of Appeals for the Honorable Charles L. Becton and the Honorable Allyson K. Duncan.
Debra Carroll Graves: Ms. Graves is the Senior Trial Attorney with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina and has been with the office since 1998.
University of Dayton School of Law. She was in private practice in Raleigh, North Carolina before joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office in December, 2005.
William O. King: Mr. King is the with firm of Moore & Van Allen in their Research Triangle office. He teaches adjunct at Campbell University Law School on three subjects – ethics and professional responsibility, trial advocacy, and law practice
management. Bill is the past president of the N.C. State Bar; past president of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers; current member of the N.C. Judicial Standards Committee; former member and chairman of the N.C. Client Security Fund; former member of the ABA’s House of Delegates; former member of the Executive Council for the National Conference of Bar Presidents; and former national Board member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (former president of the eastern NC Chapter). Bill’s
undergraduate degree is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his law degree is from Wake Forest. In addition to teaching, he currently spends the remainder of his time doing mediations and arbitrations. He is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “NC Super Lawyers.”
Charles Robert Livingston, Jr.: Mr. Livingston is a Staff Investigator for the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina assigned to the Fayetteville field office. He received his B.A. in Political Science and History from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a M.A. in Police Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to taking his current position in 1987, Chuck was a Parole Officer with the State of North Carolina (1974 - 1979), a Police Officer for the City of Fayetteville, NC (1979 - 1987), and a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office (1987 - 1999).
Michael Maloney: Mr. Maloney was a solo practitioner and member of the CJA panel for 12 years before becoming an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Nebraska in 2005. Mike served as a visiting Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Defender Services in Washington, D.C. in 2007, and has presented at a number of CJA panel seminars. Mike is a double graduate of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, receiving a B.A. in 1986 and his J.D. in 1989.
Thomas P. McNamara: Mr. McNamara is the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Mr. McNamara received his B.A. in 1961 from Duke
E. Fitzgerald Parnell: Mr. Parnell is a Past President of th North Carolina State Bar, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and concentrates his practice in professional malpractice defense, white collar crime, government investigations, and municipal representation. In more than thirty years of practice he has been involved in a wide array of civil and criminal cases throughout the western half of North Carolina, in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and in the appellate courts of North Carolina. After graduation from the University of North Carolina School of Law, Jerry served as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Bobbitt of the North Carolina Supreme Court and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. He was a founder and chairman of the North Carolina Federal Bar Advisory Council, a founder of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, he is a founding member of the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission, and is a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, a member of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents and the National Conference of Bar Presidents. He has served as a member of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility of the American Bar Association, and currently serves on the Boards of Legal Services of Southern Piedmont, the Community Defender of Western North Carolina, and the North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys. Jerry represents North Carolina attorneys in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and serves on the ABA’s Nominating Committee and on the Steering Committee of the Nominating Committee. In addition to serving as President of the North Carolina State Bar, Jerry chairs its Ethics, Professionalism, Executive, Publications and Ethics 2000 Committees. He is a frequent writer and continuing education speaker in the fields of civil practice and professional responsibility.
James S. “Jimbo” Perry: Mr. Perry is an attorney in private practice in Kinston, North Carolina. He received both his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration (1977) and his J.D. (1980) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1981 to 1985, Mr. Perry was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, in Raleigh. Mr. Perry currently serves as the CJA Panel
Representative from the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Windy C. Venable: Ms. Venable is an Attorney-Advisor at the Office of Defender Services Legal Policy and Training Division in Washington, D.C. Windy worked in the Eastern District of North Carolina as a Research and Writing Attorney and an Assistant Federal Public Defender after serving as a staff attorney at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Windy graduated with a B.A. in humanities in 1996 and graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University Law School in 1999. Following graduation, Winy
worked as a federal law clerk in the Southern District of Texas.
Walker went into private practice until 1987, when he became an Assistant Federal Public Defender. Mr. Walker has served the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina in several capacities during his tenure, including Acting Federal Public Defender.
Honorable William A. Webb: Judge Webb served in the U.S. Air Force from 1963 -1966. He received his B.A. in 1971 from the University of New Haven and his J.D. in 1974 from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Prior to his current
appointment, Judge Webb was an Assistant District Attorney in Allegheny County, PA; Senior Staff Counsel for the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC; Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania; Deputy Attorney General, Regional Director for the
Pennsylvania Department of Justice; Commissioner for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, DC; Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina (twice); Deputy Secretary, General Counsel for the NC Department of Crime Control & Public Safety; and Federal Public Defender, Eastern District of North Carolina. Judge Webb has served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina from October, 1999 to present.
Katherine Davenport Wisz: Ms. Wisz joined the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina in July 2005. Kate served a Supervisory Attorney Advisor for the Social Security Administration Office of Hearings and Appeals in Raleigh, from October 2004 until she joined the Clerk's office. At Social Security, Kate was a Senior Attorney Advisor from 2000 to 2004 and began her service there as an Attorney Advisor
Decision writer from 1995-2000. Prior to her 10-year career with Social Security, Kate clerked for the Court of Appeals, Commonwealth of Kentucky, with the Honorable
Joseph Huddleston, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Kate graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1994. While there, she served as Articles Editor for the Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law. Kate earned her undergraduate degree in English at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania.
William A. Woodruff: Professor of Law, graduated magna cum laude from the
University of South Carolina School of Law in 1978. He joined the Campbell law faculty in 1992 after serving 22 years in the Army and reaching the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. While an Army lawyer, Professor Woodruff taught graduate legal studies at The Judge Advocate General’s School in
Charlottesville, Virginia. He also served as a trial attorney in the Army Litigation Division and the Torts Branch, U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the United States in civil litigation. Just prior to joining the Campbell faculty, he was the Chief of the Litigation Division at Headquarters, Department of the Army, and was responsible for overseeing civil litigation involving Army policies, programs, and
operations. Professor Woodruff teaches Trial Advocacy, Military Law, Evidence, Health Law and Government Litigation. Professor Woodruff may be contacted by e-mail at
Melvin F. Wright, Jr.: Mr. Wright received his undergraduate degree from the
University of North Carolina in 1967 and his law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1973. Mel was a private practice attorney for twenty-six years until he became the Executive Director of the North Carolina Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism in November 1999. As a newly formed Commission, Mel had the challenging task of establishing the office from only a Supreme Court Order and a set of bylaws. He has worked tirelessly for the cause of professionalism, both as Executive Director of the Commission and as a private practice attorney. In addition to his many years in private practice, he has served as President of the Forsyth County Bar
Association and the 21 Judicial District, Chairman of the Ethics & Grievancesst
Committee of the Forsyth County Bar Association, officer of Executive Committee of the Forsyth County Bar Association, officer of the Forsyth County Criminal Defense
Lawyers Association, and Chairman of the National Consortium on Professionalism Initiatives. Mel currently serves as Chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism, and as a member of the Consortium of Professionalism Initiatives, the North Carolina Bar Association Professionalism Committee and the Wake County Bar Association Professionalism Committee. He is a member of the Wake County, North Carolina and American Bar Associations, the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility, and the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers. Lastly, Mel is an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, teaching Professional Responsibility.
