Tia Hudgins Taylor L'18 will serve Edgecombe, Nash, and Wilson counties in North Carolina’s Judicial District 8.
Gov. Josh Stein this week appointed Tia Hudgins Taylor L’18 as a District Court judge in North Carolina’s Judicial District 8.
Taylor will be sworn in later this spring as a judge for Eastern North Carolina’s Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson Counties. She will complete the remainder of Judge William Solomon’s term through 2026. In announcing the appointment, Stein called Taylor an exceptional and dedicated attorney.
For Taylor, the appointment fulfills a long-term career goal and enables her to serve her hometown of Rocky Mount and surrounding communities in a new capacity. She is currently an associate attorney at Lassiter & Sperati, a Rocky Mount-based firm.
“My community has poured so much into me. This is my opportunity to help my community and pour back into it,” Taylor said. “Being a judge will allow me to be the person I am: To listen, be fair, to impartially apply the law, and to help people in a different capacity. I am appreciative of Gov. Stein and his confidence in me.”
Since graduating from Elon University School of Law, Taylor has practiced across a range of civil and criminal matters — including real estate, criminal defense, family law and estate planning — and served nearly two years as an assistant district attorney in District 8.
Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree in sport management from Queens University in Charlotte and initially planned to become a sports and entertainment lawyer. But experiences at Elon Law shifted her focus toward public service. She completed her residency-in-practice at the Guilford County Public Defender’s Office and later interned at the Alamance County District Attorney’s Office.
“I remember people coming into the courthouse needing help. They needed answers. I realized I could provide that help,” Taylor said. “Great experiences unique to Elon Law helped me be successful. The residency was important to seeing how things work in the legal field and how lawyering looks in the real world.”
The Residency-in-Practice Program is unique to Elon Law and requires that all second-year students complete a full-time, faculty-directed residency where they develop practical legal skills alongside experienced attorneys and judges.
At Elon Law, Taylor was an Advocacy Fellow, a member of the Moot Court Board, president of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society, active in the Black Law Student Association, and served as a student mentor.
Taylor’s swearing-in ceremony is tentatively scheduled for April 30.
About Elon Law
Elon Law in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, 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, placing in the Top 10 for three consecutive years.
The Elon Law Flex Program, a part-time, in-person program of legal study for working professionals, launched in Fall 2024 at Elon University’s Charlotte campus.