VIDEO: Beasley understands value of powerful examples

By Ross Chandler

The power of a well-set example resonated in the life of Cheri Beasley, and now the former North Carolina chief justice has the opportunity to set an example for a future generation of lawyers.

Born in Tennessee and having received her law degree there, she found herself first practicing at the Cumberland County Public Defender’s Office, representing people charged with serious crimes who, if convicted, could face years, even decades, in prison. One of the District Court judges she appeared before, Patricia Timmons-Goodson, struck a chord with the young African American attorney fresh out of the University of Tennessee College of Law.

“I was a licensed attorney at the point when I saw an African American woman presiding in the courtroom,” Beasley said. “To see her with eloquence and great finesse lead the courtroom was deeply impactful to me as a professional and personally.”

Timmons-Goodson was doing something Beasley had not seen modeled before — a Black woman serving in a position of substantial legal authority. “I had never conceptualized that possibility,” Beasley said. “Seeing her as a capable jurist helped me see and expand the vision for my life.”

Timmons-Goodson’s example lingered with the young attorney. From being a public defender, Beasley rose to the District Court bench herself, appointed by then-Gov. Jim Hunt in 1999 and reelected in her own right in 2002 and 2006. From there, she defeated Doug McCullough, a member of the North Carolina Court of Appeals, by 15 percentage points in 2008. When Timmons-Goodson, by then on the North Carolina Supreme Court, opted to give up her seat in 2012, then-Gov. Bev Perdue appointed Beasley, who went on to keep the position in the 2014 election.

Then, Beasley set her mark when she was appointed by Gov. Roy Cooper as the state’s chief justice in 2019. She became the first African American woman to hold the position.

The ebb and flow of politics changed her course. The rise of the Republican Party in the state saw Paul Newby elected chief justice by a 401-vote margin in the 2020 election in which almost 5.4 million votes were cast. In 2022, she campaigned against Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Budd for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Richard Burr; Budd took the seat, outpolling Beasley by just over 3.2 percentage points.

However, the electoral losses opened other doors. After 2020, Beasley joined McGuireWoods as a partner, then moved to Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd this year as a shareholder. But no less important is her latest venture — serving as the inaugural Sandra Day O’Conner professor of law at Elon University School of Law. Her lessons go beyond those in caselaw books, starting with a key word.

“My students would tell you, if you’d ask them, that the one word I use in every class is ‘empowerment,’” she said. “hether in their personal life or as a lawyer conferring with a client or standing up in court to present his or her case, “They should feel a sense of empowerment.”

“People seek advice and counsel from lawyers in times that are challenging for them,” she said. “I tell them that when I have a lawyer, I want a person who is going to fight for me.”

In addition to the lessons in her appellate law classes, her goals include instilling a sense of commitment to clients and delivering representation ethically and with integrity. Situations that drive clients to seek legal representation demand those qualities.

“Most people don’t come seeking advice from lawyers on their best day,” she said, “and I always want [law students] to be mindful of that.”

On the bench

Beasley’s tenure as chief justice came at a tumultuous time due to events outside the court.

Sworn in March 1, 2019, she was first confronted with the physical damage left over from the previous year’s Hurricane Florence, which forced courts in Pender and Jones counties to move to temporary locations and damaged those in Carteret, Craven, New Hanover and Onslow counties. On Florence’s heels, 2019’s Hurricane Dorian upended court sessions and related work in New Hanover and Pender counties.

Then, before 2020 reached its halfway point, came two momentous events — the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The former would go on to shutter many government agencies, but courts still had to function. It fell to Beasley to find a way to keep them working while also ensuring staff members’ health and safety.

Despite the horror of Floyd’s death, which she said “deeply impacted” the court’s staff, it also offered an opportunity.

“Certainly, George Floyd’s murder was a tragic event for this country and a real travesty. What did happen, however, is that as a nation, we were all moved to have critical conversations about race and racism in this country,” she said, including how judges “address racism and all the other -isms” and an examination of the disparities in outcomes in the courts.

“It was important to me as an African American to address the disparities,” Beasley said.

Her time as a judge also has seen a sea change in state judicial elections. North Carolina filled its Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in partisan elections until 2004, switched that year to nonpartisan votes, then reversed course to partisan elections in 2016. Of the five judicial elections Beasley ran in, four were nonpartisan and only the 2020 contest for chief justice was partisan.

She offered a mix of opinions on partisan vs. nonpartisan elections. On one hand, a partisan election offers political parties the chance to effectively vet candidates, she said, but “I’m not sure that parties always get that right.” While she said she believes that judges of both parties can be fair and impartial, she also pointed out a concern outside of political affiliation.

“Now, elections for judges are just so expensive,” she said, even for those on trial courts, although they have the advantage of running in smaller districts. Judges must raise their profiles so that voters will know them, and outside money pours into the process.

All of this comes to a head in the election of the seven members of the state’s Supreme Court.

“It’s really the Supreme Court races that garner a lot of attention. … That means the justices are doing their work by day and then raising money at night. For a lot of the electorate, that’s really unbecoming.”

Looking into the future

Increasing numbers of candidates for office are women and from minority groups, a shift that pleases Beasley. Pointing to her 2022 campaign, she said she was proud of the successes it included and the way it was run, and that it remains important for people to appreciate the talents that minority women bring to the table in the U.S. Senate, at statehouses and elsewhere.

“Do we need to see a more diverse United States Senate? We absolutely do,” she said.

With political skills and high name recognition earned through statewide campaigns, she appears well-positioned for another campaign for high office, but would she enter the ring?

Said Beasley: “I’ve always known as a little girl that I want to be of service. … I always will be of service.”

Do you have a suggestion for a profile of a North Carolina lawyer? Submit it to Editor Ross Chandler at [email protected].