Martin H. Brinkley
William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean emeritus
Areas of Expertise
- Antitrust and Trade Regulation
- Business Organizations Law
- Commercial Law
- Corporate Governance
- Corporate Law
- Judges
- Jurisprudence
- Legal Biography
- Legal Education
- Legal History
- Legal Profession
- Nonprofit Organizations Law
- Organizations Law
- Politics and the Law
- Property Law and Real Estate
- Religion Law
- Rule of Law
Biography
Martin H. Brinkley is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor at Carolina Law. He teaches first year Property, Business Associations, and Legal History.
A native North Carolinian, Dean Brinkley received an A.B. degree summa cum laude in Classics from Harvard University and studied papyrology at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Ancient Studies before attending Carolina Law, where he was Executive Articles Editor of the North Carolina Law Review. He clerked for Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin, III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced corporate law for 22 years in Raleigh, NC.
From 2015 to 2025 he served as the law school’s 14th dean, the first person to lead the school directly from practice in its 175-year history.
Professor Brinkley’s research and writing interests involve the roles played by law and lawyers in the development of public institutions; the influence of ancient Greek, Roman and English common law principles and institutions on American law and government; and the development of professional and personal identity in younger lawyers.
Professor Brinkley is committed to the legal profession, his church, and the civic life of his native state. He has served on the boards of or acted as pro bono legal counsel to many nonprofit institutions. He has been Senior Warden, Junior Warden and a member of the Vestry of his home parish, Christ Episcopal Church in Raleigh. He currently serves as Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.
Professor Brinkley is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an Honorary Master of the Bench of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. In 2011-12, he was President of the 17,000-member North Carolina Bar Association. In 2017, he received the Association’s H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award, which recognizes “those North Carolina attorneys whose trustworthiness, respectful and courteous treatment of all people, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement and commitment to excellence in work, and service to the profession and community during a multi-faceted, accomplished life, inspire others.” In 2023, he received the North Caroliniana Society Award in acknowledgement of his “long and distinguished service in the encouragement, production, enhancement, promotion, and preservation of North Caroliniana.”
Education
- J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1992)
- A.B. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), Classics, Harvard University (1987)
Selected Publications
Teaching Leadership in American Law Schools: Why the Pushback?, 73 BAYLOR L. REV. 194 (2021).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress
In Memoriam: William Brantley Aycock, 95 N.C. L. REV. 1 (2016).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress
"Great and Truly Public": Carolina Law's Twenty-First Century Challenge, 94 N.C. L. REV. 1 (2015).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress
The Regulation of Contractual Change: A Guide to No Oral Modification Clauses for North Carolina Lawyers, 81 N.C. L. REV. 2239 (2003).
Westlaw | Lexis/Nexis | Hein | BEPress