Dean Emeritus Martin Brinkley ’92 spent his lunch break plotting. He scanned the crowd at the Festival of Legal Learning, deciding who to cold-call during his afternoon session. “You should all consider yourselves on the alert for a question from me,” he warned when he began his session. 

He picked Interim Dean Andy Hessick first. The assignment: Draft your own tombstone epitaph. It must say something beyond dates. 

Hessick proposed “he tried” as his epitaph. 

Brinkley wasn’t satisfied. What were you trying to do with that? “I’m trying to capture the essence of me if I’m trying to distill myself down into something short,” Hessick said. 

“Precisely,” Brinkley replied. “That’s what Thomas Jefferson did when he confronted death in the early months of the year 1826.” 

This is the kind of thing that happens when you show up to Festival. You get Dean Emeritus Brinkley putting you on the spot about your mortality. You get Supreme Court litigation strategy from alumni arguing actual cases. You get two mayors explaining exactly how federal bureaucracy fails disaster survivors. You get 140 lawyers from six decades of Carolina Law classes filling every seat at the School of Government on a February Friday because the programming is worth showing up for. 

This year’s Festival was sold out. More than 140 alumni from the Class of 1965 to the Class of 2025 spent six hours on February 13 learning about Supreme Court strategy, hurricane recovery, predatory lending, Thomas Jefferson’s writing habits, and artificial intelligence. Brian Meacham ’03, Law Alumni Association president, opened at 9 a.m., welcoming lawyers from solo practice and BigLaw, in-house counsel and government agencies, from across North Carolina and beyond. 

The energy started the night before at the Carolina Inn, where over 100 donors gathered for the inaugural “With Thanks” event. Instead of a traditional program, the school organized tables around banking and finance, military and veterans law, and sports and entertainment. Each table mixed faculty, current students, and alumni whose expertise could push these areas forward. Should Carolina Law help college athletes navigate NIL contracts? Can the school leverage Charlotte as a banking capital while teaching financial literacy? “The conversations were excellent,” Associate Dean Rick Su told the Festival crowd the next morning. “I think we had a lot of good ideas.” 

Elizabeth Fisher ’19 and Rick Simpson ’77 from Wiley Rein opened Friday’s sessions with Interim Dean Andy Hessick, walking through a Supreme Court Litigation Clinic case currently on its fourth relist. “Stakes are high,” Fisher said. “Three relists seems to be the sweet spot for a grant. When you get to four, maybe it’s more likely that there’s an opinion being prepared at the petition stage.” The case involves qualified immunity and First Amendment retaliation, with 15 amicus briefs supporting the petitioner. “This case is very, very hot,” Fisher said. 

Rebecca Badgett from the School of Government moderated a panel that brought the legal conversation home. Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer ’98 and Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers ’08 walked through Hurricane Helene’s aftermath. Manheimer showed a photo of the “flush brigade,” volunteers organized to help homebound elderly residents with basic sanitation after the city’s water system failed. 

Smathers made bureaucratic delays personal. An alderman lost his home in 2021, applied for a FEMA buyout, and received the money four months ago. Years of waiting while paying a mortgage on a destroyed house. “There are people hanging onto promises that help is on its way, paying mortgages, wanting their kids to remain in schools, wanting to keep calling Western North Carolina home,” Smathers said. “People working on these projects in Washington need a picture of someone who has lost everything. Before you clock out every day, take a look at that picture and ask yourself, did I do everything today to make their lives better.  

Kara Bruce, Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law explained merchant cash advances through a golden goose. Buy a goose, you take the risk it dies or lays golden eggs. Loan money secured by a goose; you get your fixed payment regardless. MCAs claim the first scenario but operate as the second. “Courts miss it all the time,” she said. The case law has shifted dramatically since 2022. “It’s a great story of law development in action.” 

Then came Brinkley’s cold-calling assignment. Jefferson’s epitaph listed three accomplishments: author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, father of the University of Virginia. Not president, not Secretary of State, not governor. “Authorship,” Brinkley said. He traced how Jefferson became that writer through studying Tacitus, whose work Jefferson called “all pith.” Energy, cogency, fullness of sentiment, closeness and vigor of thought and style. 

 Mark Storslee, Associate Professor and C. Boyden Gray Distinguished Scholar examined how the Supreme Court has grappled with social media regulation and Establishment Clause doctrine. The day closed with Patricia Brown ’86, Wab Kadaba ’97, and John Sieman ’07 on artificial intelligence. Brown asked the room about ChatGPT usage. Most had tried it, fewer use it daily, one person can’t live without it. Kadaba described using it to draft letters and contracts. “I’ve found it to be a very substantial time-saving device.” 

While alumni filled the School of Government, the Class of 2028 had their own programming. Every first-year student participated in Carolina Law’s mandatory AI literacy program during the Student Festival for Legal Learning. Clinical professors Nicole Downing and Michelle Rodenburg designed sessions covering what these tools are, their limitations, and how to use them ethically. 

At 5 p.m., those first-year students joined alumni in the atrium. A lawyer who graduated in 1965 talked with someone from the Class of 2025. Big Law partners compared notes with solo practitioners. The AI panel speakers met students who just spent the afternoon learning the tools they’ll use throughout their careers. This is what happens when 140 people decide a February Friday is worth showing up for. 

If you missed this year’s sold-out Festival, join us next year.