René Shekmer named Campbell Law’s director of competitive advocacy

RALEIGH - Campbell Law School has hired B. René Shekmeras the new director of the competitive advocacy program, Dean J. Rich Leonard has announced. She started in her new role on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024.

Shekmer, a decorated criminal trial attorney who lives in Cary, will take over Campbell Law's award-winning advocacy teams most recently led by Director Mary Ann Matney '17.

The bulk of Shekmer's 31-year career was spent as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Michigan. In this role, she obtained more than 600 felony convictions and tried more than 60 federal jury trials. Shekmer also acted as a co-counsel to assist and evaluate new attorneys during their first trials.

For a number of years, Shekmer was an instructor in The Hillman Advocacy Program, sponsored by the Western Michigan Federal Bar Association, which teaches trial skills to new attorneys. She has also served on the program's Steering Committee.

Shekmer graduated from the Widener University Delaware School of Law in 1985 and from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's of arts in criminology 1981.

She is also an author with a passion for reading and traveling. After living in seven countries throughout the world and visiting many more, Shekmer has written an action-adventure series called Detachment 3, which is a secret CIA investigative, paramilitary unit, with four team members. Each novel, which can be found on Amazon, follows the team on a different mission to recover someone or something.

The law school's Competitive Trial Advocacy Program is consistently ranked among the best in the nation by multiple publications including preLaw Magazine and has earned one international championship, more than a dozen national championships, more than a dozen regional championships and more than 20 national individual best advocate awards. Earlier this year, Campbell Law's program tied for sixth in the nation in the most recent final GAVEL Rankings. The GAVEL Rankings were created by Professor Jared Rosenblatt, Special Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School and faculty advisor to Hofstra's Trial Advocacy Association. Campbell Law, which is tied with the University of South Carolina's School of Law, is the only North Carolina law school to make the list.

ABOUT CAMPBELL LAW SCHOOL

Since its founding in 1976, Campbell Law has developed lawyers who possess moral conviction, social compassion, and professional competence, and who view the law as a calling to serve others. Among its accolades, the school has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) as having the nation's top Professionalism Program and by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers for having the nation's best Trial Advocacy Program. Campbell Law boasts nearly 5,000 alumni, who make their home in nearly all 50 states and beyond. In 2024, Campbell Law is celebrating 45 years of graduating legal leaders and 15 years of being located in a state-of-the-art facility in the heart of North Carolina's Capital City.

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