Paul C. Ridgeway

Biography

Judge Paul Ridgeway is a Resident Superior Court Judge of the 10th Judicial District (Wake County), North Carolina. As a superior court judge, Judge Ridgeway presides over felony criminal trials, civil matters where the amount in controversy exceeds $25,000, and administrative appeals arising from various state agencies. He has presided in courts in over 40 counties in North Carolina, and has been appointed by the Chief Justice to adjudicate exceptional and complex commercial and constitutional matters throughout the State.

Judge Ridgeway received his B.S. degree (’82) and a Masters of Public Administration (’90) from North Carolina State University (NCSU). Judge Ridgeway received his juris doctorate, cum laude, from Campbell University School of Law (’86), where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Campbell Law Review. Following graduation from law school, Judge Ridgeway received a fellowship to study the law of the European Community at the University of Amsterdam, and was awarded a degree from that institution (’87).

For two decades, Judge Ridgeway was engaged in the private practice of law. His practice consisted of a wide variety of commercial litigation, commercial transactions, and administrative law matters. In November 2006, Judge Ridgeway was elected to the Superior Court and he began his duties as a judge in January 2007.

For more than twenty years, Judge Ridgeway has also been an adjunct professor of law at Campbell University School of Law, where he currently teaches a seminar in Law and Public Policy and a seminar on International Commercial Litigation.

In 2002, Judge Ridgeway served as President of the Wake County Bar Association and President of the 10th Judicial District Bar. He has served in a number of leadership positions in the North Carolina Bar Association, including Vice President, council member of the International Law Section, the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section, the Litigation Section, and as chair of the Law Practice Management Section.

Judge Ridgeway was appointed by the governor in 2000 as a commissioner to the Rural Internet Access Authority, where he oversaw the development and implementation of incentive grants totaling in excess of $20 million to assist in the deployment of high speed internet services throughout rural North Carolina. In 2003, Judge Ridgeway was appointed by the North Carolina Chief Justice to the Commission on the Future of the North Carolina Business Court, where he assisted in the drafting of legislation that was ultimately enacted expanding the role of that court. He presently serves on the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism.

Judge Ridgeway has served as a board member for several local nonprofit and charitable organizations, including organizations serving elderly populations, homeless families, and children. He is the past president of the NCSU Alumni Association and currently serves on the university’s Board of Visitors. He also is a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of Public and International Affairs at NCSU.