Faculty News

Irving Joyner. The NCCU School of Law and Professor Irving Joyner received the NAACP’s William Robert Ming Advocacy Award at the NAACP’s 110th Annual National Convention Center on July 22nd, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan.

This award is presented annually to an attorney (usually a litigator) who exemplifies the spirit of financial and personal sacrifices that Mr. Ming displayed in his decades of legal work for the NAACP. Professors Brenda Gibson presented on a panel along with Saleema Snow (UDC), Professors Teri McMurtry-Chubb (Mercer), Jane Cross (Nova Southeastern), Shakira Pleasant (Miami), Latisha Nixon-Jones (SULC) and Tiffany Jeffers (Penn State Dickinson) for their panel presentation held at the 4th National People of Color Scholarship Conference at American University Washington College of Law (March 21-24th). The panel focused on the creation of a Legal Writing Pipeline called WAR—Writing as Resistance.

The purpose of the pipeline is to foster a conducive writing environment for people of color interested in teaching Legal Writing and Skills courses. The panel also celebrated and honored the launch of the social media movement @blackandbluebook on twitter. The social media movement highlighted and provided resources for legal scholars of color.

Brenda Reddix-Smalls. The NCCU School of Law and Professor ReddixSmalls received the NBA IP Section’s Diversity in Tech Award on July 21, 2019 during the National Bar Association’s Annual Convention in New York, NY.

The NBA’s IP Section acknowledges the work of individuals, companies and schools that recognize the importance of fostering diversity and inclusion in the scientific and IP fields. The NBA IP Sections’ Diversity in Tech & IP Awards are designed to highlight the importance of ensuring that minorities and women are not excluded or left behind, and were created to acknowledge efforts to eliminate imbalances in the racial, ethnic and gender representation in the IP and technology fields.

The Tech awards were created to recognize diverse lawyers and inhouse legal departments that have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys in the technology industry. North Carolina Central School of Law was recognized along with Professor Reddix-Smalls as having a significant contribution to the field of Intellectual Property by creating a pool of diverse attorneys with its programs and curriculum.