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Martin H. Brinkley (born 1966) is a lawyer and the 14th Dean and the Arch T. Allen Distinguished Professor at the School of Law of the University of North Carolina.

Early Life and Education
Brinkley was born in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Brinkley earned a bachelor’s degree in Classics in three years from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He was the Latin Orator for the 336th Commencement Exercises of Harvard University in 1987.

After graduate study as a Rotary Foundation Scholar at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Ancient Studies, Brinkley enrolled at the University of North Carolina School of Law. He earned a J.D. degree in 1992 after serving as Executive Articles Editor of the North Carolina Law Review.

Professional Career
During his 22 years at the bar, Brinkley practiced primarily in the fields of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, antitrust and regulated industries, public finance and charitable organizations law. He was counsel to clients in the manufacturing, distribution, food and beverage, and insurance industries. He led Smith Anderson’s regulatory and governmental affairs practice, served on the firm’s management and compensation committees, and was recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business Lawyers and Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America. In 2011-12 Brinkley served as President of the North Carolina Bar Association, becoming the youngest lawyer in more than 50 years to lead the statewide association and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Dean of the University of North Carolina School of Law
Brinkley is the first person since the nineteenth century to become dean of the UNC School of Law (founded 1845) directly from private practice. He joined the University in July 2015. Under his leadership, bar examination passage rates have exceeded 90% and rankings of the law school by media organizations have escalated.

Brinkley has led the school in the creation of new experiential education programs. The UNC Law Institute for Innovation, launched in July 2019, houses three transactional law clinics that provide legal representation to for-profit and nonprofit organizational clients. Brinkley also formed the UNC Law Military and Veterans Law Clinic in 2019.

Dean Brinkley was the 2017 recipient of the North Carolina Bar Association’s H. Brent McKnight Renaissance Lawyer Award, which recognizes a North Carolina attorney “whose trustworthiness, respectful and courteous treatment of all people, enthusiasm for intellectual achievement and commitment to excellence in work, and service to the profession and community, inspire others.”   That same year he was made a Master of the Bench of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, one of the four ancient inns of court preparing barristers for practice in the courts of the United Kingdom.

Community Service
Dean Brinkley has served on the boards of or acted as pro bono counsel to dozens of nonprofit institutions with charitable, religious, artistic and educational missions, including the North Caroliniana Society, the North Carolina Symphony, and Saint Mary’s School. He is Vice Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and a former Senior Warden, Junior Warden and Vestryman of Christ Church in Raleigh.

Personal Life
Brinkley and his wife, the former Carol Elizabeth Scovil, live in Raleigh and are the parents of three grown children.