Elon’s Alan Woodlief Breaking New Ground Again, This Time In Charlotte

February 19, 2025

Alan D. Woodlief Jr. will commemorate his 20-year anniversary with Elon University School of Law this spring, during which time he has worn numerous hats. Not long after the late Leary Davis was named founding dean, Woodlief became the second person hired as the associate dean for administration and admissions and a founding faculty member, beginning his work more than a year before Elon Law welcomed its first students in the fall of 2006.

Woodlief has also served as interim dean, senior associate dean, director of the Moot Court Program and founder of the Guardian Ad Litem Appellate Advocacy Clinic. Now, in his newest role as vice dean, the law school’s longest-serving administrator and faculty member is overseeing a new part-time, in-person program in Charlotte. The Elon Law Flex Program welcomed its charter class in August 2024.

A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Campbell Law School, Woodlief is a former law clerk of Justice (and later Chief Justice) Henry Frye and served at Campbell Law School from 1995-2005.

In the following interview for North Carolina Lawyer, Woodlief retraced his professional journey and touched on the past, present, and future of Elon Law.

“I’m standing in my office here at Elon Law in downtown Greensboro,” Woodlief said, “but when we first came, it was the former Greensboro Library built in the 1960s, and it was completely stripped down and in the process of being converted into a modern law school. We had temporary offices across the street and brought prospective students, faculty, and staff over in hard hats to tour the facilities. We recruited our initial faculty from law schools all over the country to arrive in the summer of 2006. So, for much of the first year before we opened, we were talking to prospective students about what the law school was going to be and the promise that it held.

“Going from nothing to something, springing into existence, is a unique and rewarding experience. You don’t often get to help start something from the beginning and then watch it grow and prosper. Now it is hard to believe: I’m going to have my 20-year anniversary with Elon this spring, and that means the law school is approaching its 20th year as well.

Woodlief is one of four founding faculty members who remain at Elon Law alongside Professor Catherine Dunham, Professor Helen Grant, and Professor of Law and Senior Scholar Steve Friedland, director of the Center for Engaged Learning in the Law.

“That’s pretty good,” Woodlief said, “because that first year we hired a small group to teach the first-year courses. We’ve had amazing longevity. I believe it shows a deep commitment to the mission of this new law school.

“We aspired to be a law school with a difference – the things we initially brought to the table were an emphasis on engaged learning, which most people call experiential education now, and leadership education. In 2015, we adapted our program to a 2.5-year curriculum to allow students to save some time and expense and enter their careers earlier, and we doubled down on experiential education with our Residency in Practice Program. We haven’t been afraid to innovate and change.”

To that point, Elon Law welcomed the charter cohort of its part-time Flex Program in 2024 at the university’s Charlotte campus.

“The facility,” Woodlief explained, “does include other programs. While we have been offering the first year of the Flex program in the evening, undergraduate sport management students have been taking classes at the center during the day while completing internships throughout the city. Alumni relations and other programming also take place there, and the university expects even more activity in the near future.

“The university has centers around the country, including one in L.A. and one in New York. Many Elon alumni live or work in Charlotte and many students seek internships and residencies here, so it makes sense to have an established campus.”

Having already achieved its accreditation well over a decade ago, Elon Law only needed permission from the ABA, technically referred to as acquiescence, to begin the part-time program in Charlotte. The city had been without a law school since Charlotte School of Law closed its doors in 2017.

“It is interesting that we started at the same time back in 2006,” Woodlief said. “Their departure left a hole in Charlotte. We knew there was a need for legal education in the city. After seven years, it was still the largest U.S. city without a law school. The legal market was booming, and many of our students were interested in starting careers there.”

With all of that in mind, Woodlief continued, it just made sense to enter the Charlotte market with a part-time program.

“We have a full-time program here,” Woodlief said of Elon Law’s Greensboro campus, “and this way we can add something to the offerings in the state. If you want to go full-time, you can come to Greensboro and take advantage of what this program has to offer. For those who need to be in Charlotte, who are ‘place-bound’ with other responsibilities like work or family, the part-time program in Charlotte is perfect.”

The initial cohort of 36 charter students falls right in line with plans to enroll between 35-40 students over each of the program’s first four years.

“Our goal is to keep the program relatively small,” Woodlief said. “The idea here is that over a standard path, a student would finish in just under four years. A student who followed the curriculum as set out would complete their studies in March at the end of our Winter Trimester and then have four months to prepare for the bar exam in July.

“There will be some variation, because there will be some students who need to take a little longer. And I have been surprised by how many students have asked me if they could do it faster and finish in three and a half years or less. They are a focused and determined group.”

The response to the Flex Program, Woodlief continued, has been remarkable.

“Last year and now this year, as we are recruiting the second entering class for Fall 2025, we have held three open houses a year and each has drawn close to 100 people. We’ve had over 1,000 inquiries total for the program, so there has been a lot of interest and positive energy.

“I will borrow a line from our current dean, Zak Kramer, who often says that we are in the ‘dream-making business’ in helping people realize their dream of becoming a lawyer.

“That’s true in Greensboro, but you really feel that even more in Charlotte. It’s really compelling when you talk to someone and they tell you they really wanted to go to law school, but they were bound to Charlotte or ‘I have responsibilities, and if your program didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be able to do this.’ They are grateful and excited about the Flex Program and how it’s been an answer to their hopes and prayers. It’s moving to have people share that with you.”

Circling back to where his journey began with Elon Law, Woodlief retraces his connections with Leary Davis, who was also founding dean at Campbell Law School. Davis was serving on the faculty when Woodlief was a student there and later they became colleagues when Woodlief returned to Campbell to teach legal writing and ultimately serve as admissions dean.

“I was honored that Leary asked me to come to Elon and help get the school started,” Woodlief recalled. “Even before I joined the school, we would talk quite a bit about legal education and the profession and what a new law school could look like. Leary was a student of the profession and legal education, or really I should say an expert in both, who really took an interest in improving the experience of law students and lawyers.

“He was definitely a great mentor and model for the kind of legal educator, attorney, and person I wanted to be.”

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Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.

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