Member

Woody White, of Wilmington, NC, is an experienced courtroom attorney with a 30-year track record of success in jury and bench trials, White also consults in the areas of crisis management, business, and strategic planning. He received his undergraduate degree from Southern College in Collegedale, Tennessee in 1991, and his law degree from the University of Nebraska in 1994.

During his time on the Board, White will promote campus safety, work to maintain affordable tuition and decrease student debt, and protect and support diversity of thought at University of North Carolina System institutions. A strong advocate of higher learning, White wants North Carolina families to know that their children will graduate with relevant job skills, successfully enter the workforce, and live meaningful and productive lives.

White is admitted to practice law in North Carolina, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit Court in Richmond, Virginia, and the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. He has been recognized three times as an award winner in Business North Carolina Magazine's Legal Elite in 2007, 2010, and 2021. He holds the highest AV rating from Martindale-Hubbel Lawyer Rating Services and has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters "Super Lawyer" seven times; once in 2012 and again from 2017-2024.

White served in the North Carolina Senate in 2004 and on the New Hanover County Commission from 2012 to 2020. Those roles have shaped and informed his perspective on the workings of government and how it should be deployed to serve the people.

He has served on numerous local boards, including the University of North Carolina Wilmington Board of Trustees, the Cape Fear Community College Board of Trustees, the Cape Fear Museum Board of Trustees, and the New Hanover County Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees.

His proudest professional accomplishment is the successful completion, on behalf of 44 individual plaintiffs that lived in New Hanover County, North Carolina, of a groundwater contamination case. After a three-year effort, a national oil company was held accountable for the damages it caused.

His advice to students:

"Start as early as you can and become an avid reader, not just of required textbooks and class-assigned readings, though that is important, but read everything you can get your hands on. Newspapers, periodicals, essays, opinion editorials, and of course, books from all times and genres including late 19th century and early 20th century classics and as many Pulitzer Prize winners as possible, beginning with "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren."