Meet the Legal Affairs Team

Andrew Tripp

Andrew Tripp

Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs & General Counsel
919-962-4588

As the Senior Vice President and General Counsel in the Office of Legal Affairs, Mr. Tripp provides strategic counsel to the University of North Carolina, the Board of Governors, and President Peter Hans. He leads a team of talented professionals serving the diverse legal needs of a nationally acclaimed university system. In addition, he directly supports the operations of the Board of Governors and staffs the Committee on University Governance.

Mr. Tripp brings to the University a decade of experience in public service from his tenure at the North Carolina Senate, where he served as counsel to the Senate Rules Chairman and later as general counsel and then Chief of Staff to the President Pro Tempore. His practice areas include public law, litigation, administrative procedure, and regulatory compliance. Before entering the public sphere, Mr. Tripp worked in private practice in both Raleigh and Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Tripp began his legal career serving under and learning from the Honorable United States District Judge Terrence W. Boyle as his law clerk at Elizabeth City.

Mr. Tripp graduated with honors from the Duke University School of Law and obtained his B.A. in history and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He and his wife are raising their two boys and a girl in Raleigh.

Practice Areas: Litigation, Finance & Administration, Academic Affairs, Strategy & Policy, Employment & HR, Free Expression & First Amendment


Ruth Brill

Executive Assistant
919-962-4588

Ms. Brill provides executive administrative support for the Senior Vice President for Legal Affairs & General Counsel, the Vice President for Legal Affairs and Deputy General Counsel, and several other associate and assistant vice presidents for Legal Affairs.
  
Ms. Brill originally came to the UNC System Office in June 2003 as the assistant to the assistant to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. In 2005, she moved to Human Resources, and in 2008, she was promoted to the Division of Legal Affairs. Prior to joining the UNC System Office, Ms. Brill worked for almost ten years at Bromma, Inc., a manufacturing company in Roxboro, North Carolina. Her other experience includes working at Yanni-Bilkey Investment Consulting, an investment firm, for two years, and Mine Safety Appliances Company, a safety equipment manufacturing company, for eleven years.  
 
Ms. Brill received her Associate Degree in Secretarial Science in 1981. In 2010, she also attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Accelerated Paralegal Program at the Friday Center to earn her Paralegal Certificate and designation as a North Carolina Certified Paralegal (NCCP). She also serves as a Notary Public.


Michael Delafield

Michael Delafield

Senior Associate General Counsel
919-962-6162

Mr. Delafield concentrates his practice in the areas of academic and student affairs.  He also serves as the primary legal counsel for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a public residential high school focusing on STEM education, which became a constituent institution of the University in 2007.

Before coming to the UNC System Office in 2012, Mr. Delafield worked in private practice representing local boards of education across the state of North Carolina.

Mr. Delafield received his J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law and his B.A. from Princeton University.

Practice Areas: PBS NC & NC Arboretum, NCSSM, Free Expression & First Amendment, Government Relations, Audit & Compliance Services (including Title IX), Safety & Emergency Operations (including the Clery Act), Strategy & Policy, Academic Affairs


Bridget Bishop

Bridget Bishop

Associate General Counsel
919-962-0444

Ms. Bishop provides legal counsel to the constituent institutions on U.S. immigration law matters and operates a shared services pilot program through which she provides direct representation of participating constituent institutions regarding employment-based immigration nonimmigrant and immigrant sponsorship. 

Ms. Bishop joined UNC System Office in 2010 after working for six years in private practice at a boutique immigration law firm.  Prior to private practice, Ms. Bishop served as a law clerk for the Honorable Linda McGee on the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

Ms. Bishop received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her B.A. from the University of Virginia.

Practice Areas: Immigration


Brad Trahan

Senior Associate General Counsel
919-445-1311

Mr. Trahan provides advice and counsel to administrators and staff on a broad range of legal, contractual, and regulatory issues. His primary practice areas include finance and administration, business and transactional matters, construction and real estate, and university governance.

Before joining the UNC System Office in July 2021, Mr. Trahan worked at UNC Charlotte and NC State, representing many of the universities’ units, including but not limited to their business and finance divisions, advancement offices, offices for research and technology transfer, safety and security divisions, and athletics.

Mr. Trahan received his J.D. from Campbell University and B.A. in Public & Interpersonal Communication from NC State.

Practice Areas: Finance & Administration, Strategy & Policy, Government Relations
Contracts


Laura Dean

Laura Dean

Litigation Counsel
919-962-4551

Ms. Dean represents the University of North Carolina’s 17 institutions in various litigation matters.

Prior, Ms. Dean enjoyed a broad civil litigation practice at a mid-sized North Carolina law firm. Before practicing in North Carolina, Ms. Dean worked for a national law firm in its New York, New York office. Ms. Dean has experience handling a wide array of civil litigation matters, including professional liability cases, class-action lawsuits and product liability disputes.

Ms. Dean earned her J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. Additionally, she holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a Second Major in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ms. Dean is licensed to practice in North Carolina, New Jersey and New York. She is also admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of North Carolina and for the District of New Jersey. Ms. Dean is a member of DRI (Defense Research Institute) and FDCC.

Practice Areas: Litigation


Mary Griffin Inscoe

Associate General Counsel
919-962-2579

Ms. Inscoe serves as an Associate General Counsel for the UNC System Office. Ms. Inscoe advises and collaborates with the University of North Carolina’s 17 constituent institutions on various legal, risk, and governance matters. Her practice areas focus primarily on government relations and legislative affairs, regulatory compliance, employment and HR law, and litigation.

Prior to coming to the UNC System Office, Ms. Inscoe served as a clerk for the Honorable Robert N. Hunter Jr. at the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In 2019, Ms. Inscoe came to the UNC System, where she served as the higher education legal fellow in the Division of Legal Affairs. Ms. Inscoe then served as a University Attorney for East Carolina University prior to her return to the Division of Legal Affairs.

Ms. Inscoe received a B.A. in Spanish and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Georgia. Ms. Inscoe also received her J.D. in Athens, at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Practice Areas: Litigation, Strategy and Policy, Employment and Human Resources, Government Relations


Samantha Jenkins

Assistant General Counsel
919-445-1349


Kelly Gutzmer

Legal Support Specialist
919-962-4587


Jennifer J. Franklin

Legal Support Specialist
919-843-6997