Burley Mitchell Honored for Public Service
~posted 03.26.2004

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Burley Mitchell (1966), vice president of the Alumni Association, received the Citation for Distinguished Public Service from N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry (NCCBI) on March 18.

“This citation is designed to recognize those people who have made significant contributions to the state of North Carolina through outstanding public service,” says Phil Kirk, NCCBI president. “Burley Mitchell has dedicated his career to making our state a better place to live and work. By honoring him, we are setting the bar high for those who follow him.”

A member of the NC State Board of Visitors and Board of Advisors for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mitchell served four years as chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court before retiring from public service during 1999. He was elected to the Supreme Court as an associate justice during 1982. Prior to that, he spent two years on the Court of Appeals and worked as secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, Wake County district attorney and assistant N.C. attorney general.

During his time on the appellate bench, Mitchell authored 484 decisions, including eight that his peers consider landmark cases. He is known for having a strong work ethic and an innate desire to do the right thing. When he took over as chief justice, the Supreme Court had fallen significantly behind on its caseload, so Mitchell pushed the other members of the court to work longer hours and hold additional court days to get caught up. The result was that during his first year as chief justice, the court heard and decided almost twice as many cases as it had in the previous year. When Mitchell retired from the bench during 1999, the docket was current.

“I believe that we all have a responsibility to our communities. As a lawyer and judge, I’ve always felt well-placed to do good things for other people,” Mitchell says. “I’m very humbled by this award and appreciate being recognized for simply doing what felt right. I’m hopeful that my work will allow me to continue making things better for others.”

Mitchell has become almost as well-known for his legal decisions as he has for his life’s early story – that of a 15-year-old who dropped out of high school to join the Marines, only to be kicked out when his age was discovered. He went on to graduate from college and law school, after which he landed his first job as assistant N.C. attorney general.

“Burley Mitchell has made so many extraordinary contributions to the law in North Carolina,” says Beverly Lake, current chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court. “He’s a tremendous legal scholar and writer and his decisions represent a great contribution to the development of the law in North Carolina. And overall he has a deep-seated drive to leave the world better than he found it—to make a significant contribution—which he has done in many ways.”

After retiring from the N.C. Supreme Court, Mitchell joined Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, where he is the leader of the firm’s Government Relations and Appellate Practice Groups.