The longtime legal educator and administrator who helped build from the ground up Greensboro’s nationally ranked law school for practical training will oversee all aspects of the Elon Law Flex Program at Elon University’s Charlotte campus.
Elon University School of Law’s longest-serving administrator and faculty member has been promoted to a role overseeing the school’s new part-time, in-person program for working professionals in Charlotte.
In his appointment as vice dean, Alan D. Woodlief, Jr. will supervise all elements of the Elon Law Flex Program as it welcomes its charter class in August. Woodlief’s expanded portfolio includes Flex Program curriculum, staffing, facilities, and outreach at Elon University’s Charlotte campus in the city’s South End neighborhood.
Woodlief will remain based in Greensboro to continue oversight of Elon Law’s existing budget and operations while coordinating with colleagues in academic affairs, academic success, admissions, and the library to fully support Flex Program teaching and learning.
“I am excited for this new opportunity to grow Elon Law’s presence in Charlotte and our national reputation for experiential learning and mentoring relationships as we empower a select group of professionals to realize their dreams of becoming lawyers,” Woodlief said. “The Charlotte legal community has been integral to Elon Law’s success for nearly two decades by hosting student interns and welcoming graduates into the bar. I look forward to building upon our shared history of cooperation to the betterment of the profession and the Charlotte region.”
The Charlotte legal community has been integral to Elon Law’s success for nearly two decades by hosting student interns and welcoming graduates into the bar. I look forward to building upon our shared history of cooperation to the betterment of the profession and the Charlotte region.
– Elon Law Vice Dean Alan Woodlief
Woodlief joined Elon Law in May 2005 to prepare facilities and curriculum for the arrival of the law school’s charter class the following year. He has chaired or served on numerous law school and university committees, including strategic planning and American Bar Association accreditation committees.
Woodlief established Elon Law’s Moot Court Program in 2008, coaching numerous award-winning teams and guiding the Moot Court Board in hosting the annual Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition, one of the nation’s largest competitions. In 2015, he founded the Guardian Ad Litem Appellate Advocacy Clinic, through which Elon Law students represent the interests of abused and neglected children in the North Carolina appellate courts.
The Moot Court Program and the Guardian Ad Litem Appellate Advocacy Clinic will both continue under his leadership, and Woodlief will continue to teach a variety of courses at the law school’s Greensboro and Charlotte campuses.
Woodlief is a scholar on damages, civil trial practice and appellate practice, authoring treatises that are widely used by North Carolina practitioners and judges and frequently cited by the state’s appellate courts.
“This promotion to vice dean is a recognition of Alan’s leadership over the history of Elon Law, as well as an updated portfolio that matches the School of Law’s changing needs,” said Dean Zak Kramer. “Our ongoing success simply would not be possible without his valuable service to Elon University.”
About Elon University School of Law
Elon Law is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with a required, full-time residency-in-practice field placement for all full-time students during the winter or spring of their second year. The law school’s distinctive curriculum offers a logically sequenced program of professional preparation and is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides exceptional value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their careers.
Elon Law has graduated more than 1,500 alumni since opening its doors in 2006. Its annual enrollment now tops 440 students and the law school is regularly featured in PreLaw Magazine’s “Best Schools for Practical Training” rankings, reaching #4 in the nation in 2024. The Elon Law Flex Program, a part-time, in-person program of legal study for working professionals begins in Fall 2024 at Elon University’s Charlotte campus.