Hon. James A. Wynn, Jr.

Richard J. Fotsch

Hon. James A. Wynn, Jr., Law ’79, was elected to the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Board of Trustees in 2013.

Wynn served for 20 years as a state appellate judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He now sits as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Before becoming a judge, Wynn practiced law at a small litigation law firm in eastern North Carolina.

After law school, Wynn served in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps for four years active and 26 years reserve in various leadership positions, including as a military trial judge. He retired as a captain (O-6).

He currently serves on the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Information Technology Committee. He is a former member of the American Bar Endowment board of directors, where he served as the finance committee chair. He is a former chair of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division and the Commission on Human Rights.

Wynn has delivered lectures on judicial topics for the U.S. State Department’s Speaker Series in countries around the world. He was a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law, delivered the 2003 E. Harold Hallows Lecture at ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Law School and delivered the 2020 Madison Lecture at New York University School.

He currently serves as an annual instructor for the New Appellate Judges Seminar at New York University School of Law and for the Annual Section 1983 Civil Rights Seminar at the Practising Law Institute in New York.

Wynn holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; a juris doctor degree from the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Law School; and a master of laws degree in judicial process from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity and is a 33rd-degree Mason. He also chairs the Board of Deacons at his church.

He is a member of the ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ President’s Society.