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At a public debate at ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law on October 29, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice (Ret.) Jim Exum urged that North Carolina move to a system of appointing judges, arguing that elections wrongly influence judges to consider the political implications of their decisions, while ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law professor Scott Gaylord defended judicial elections, saying an appointive system could create undue influence by the executive and legislative branches on the judiciary.

In the book, Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the Next American Metropolis, ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law professor Faith Rivers James explores challenges to the preservation of African American property ownership in coastal South Carolina.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law professor Howard Katz spoke about urban planning at an October 27 forum in Greensboro, organized to gather public input on the city's initiative to create a Downtown Area Consolidated Plan.

ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law professor Henry Gabriel was the keynote speaker at the Conference on Transnational Commercial Law at the University of South Africa in Johannesburg on October 19 and 20.

David Gergen, adviser to four United States presidents, Director of the Center for Public Leadership and Professor of Public Service at the Harvard Kennedy School, one of the country's preeminent political commentators, and chair of ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ's Law School Advisory Board, described ÂÒÂ×ÊÓƵ Law's founding principles of engaged learning, service, and leadership, and underscored their importance to the legal profession and to the nation's well-being, in the inaugural commencement address before the charter class of the law school on May 24.