UNC has named a new Dean for the School of Law.

Standing in front of hundreds of faculty members in the rotunda of the School of Law on Friday, Raleigh attorney Martin Brinkley was named Dean after a search that stretched for nearly an entire year.

Brinkley choked back tears while addressing the crowd before saying he is excited to come back to his alma mater and get to work.

“This is a great institution filled with magnificent people,” he says. “I think that we do have some challenges. It’s well known that the legal profession is going through some difficult times. And we have some opportunities to direct the law school outward toward the business community in certain areas that I think are very, very exciting.

“We’re in the perfect place in the country to do that, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Brinkley says he was initially hesitant to include his name in the search because he has been practicing law privately for more than two decades. But he adds once he realized the committee was serious, he was thrilled to be involved.

Brinkley is a 1992 graduate of the UNC School of Law, before serving as a law clerk to US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sam Ervin III. Brinkley also served as an adjunct professor at Carolina from 1996 – 2000. At age 43, Brinkley was named president of the North Carolina Bar Association in 2011, the youngest lawyer in more than 50 years to lead the statewide organization.

Provost Jim Dean spoke more about Brinkley’s qualifications.

“His major practice areas include corporate and commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, anti-trust, public finance, and charitable and non-profit organizations,” he says. “He maintains an active pro bono practice representing clients in public housing, landlord-tenant, and criminal cases.”

Chancellor Carol Folt says the law school Brinkley will be leading is one of the best in the nation.

“Six of the seven sitting North Carolina Supreme Court Justices are alumni of the UNC School of Law,” she says. “40 percent of the lawyers who are practicing in North Carolina are UNC law school alumni.”

Brinkley is taking over the helm at UNC as Jack Boger is retiring from the post after serving as dean for nine years. Boger will return to the law school faculty going forward.

The audience at Brinkley’s unveiling included some of the school’s most prestigious alumni, including Chancellor Emeritus William Aycock and former Fourth-Circuit Appellate Court Judge James Dickson Phillips.

When asked what it meant to have Aycock and Phillips in the audience, Brinkley said it was “absolutely overwhelming.”

Brinkley will continue serving as counsel with Smith-Anderson in Raleigh, where he is a partner.