As we previously blogged about here, Dan Horne recently became the Clerk of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.  Before his promotion, Dan was serving in two positions–Administrative Counsel to the Court and Assistant Director of the Office of Staff Counsel.  After his promotion to Clerk of Court, there was some speculation about how those positions would be filled.

We have learned that Shelley Edwards recently assumed the newly-created position of Assistant Clerk of the North Carolina Court of Appeals.  As Assistant Clerk, one of Ms. Edwards’ roles will be helping Dan field the flood of daily calls that come in from practitioners across the State.  Ms. Edwards has a long history with the Court of Appeals. She began as a law clerk with the Court in 1994, ultimately clerking for four different Court of Appeals judges.  In the spring of 1997, she joined the Office of Staff Counsel for the Court of Appeals, where she has worked for the past 18 years.  Congratulations to Ms. Edwards!  We look forward to peppering her with many questions in the coming years.

So why has the Assistant Clerk of Court position been created? Many years ago, the Court of Appeals had both a Clerk and an Assistant Clerk of Court.  At some point, the Assistant Clerk position was done away with, and the position of Administrative Counsel to the Court was created.  The Court of Appeals has apparently decided that the Clerk/Assistant Clerk structure is better for the Court’s present needs. Thus, Dan’s prior position as Administrative Counsel to the Court is not being backfilled.  The Court will likely elevate someone already in the Office of Staff Counsel to Dan’s old position as Assistant Director.

However, Ms. Edwards’ promotion has created a vacancy in the Office of Staff Counsel.  Interested candidates can view the job posting here, which closes on January 14, 2016.

–Beth Scherer