IDS would like to honor the life of the late Rhoda Billings.
Justice Billings is widely known in the legal community as a former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court and as a retired professor at Wake Forest University School of Law. She attained many other notable “firsts” along her remarkable journey, including being first in her class in law school, as well as the only woman, and being the first woman president of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Billings was also a member of the first Commission on Indigent Defense Services. She served more than a decade on the Commission including terms as vice-chair from 2004-2011, valued member of the IDS Long Term Planning Committee, and representative of IDS as its appointee to the Judicial Council.
IDS Executive Director Mary Pollard said, “Professor Billings was a gifted teacher and a role model for all of us. I learned so much from her and was inspired by her professionalism, her brilliance, and her courtesy to all.”
An October 2011 press release quoted then Chair of the IDS Commission Joseph B. Cheshire saying:
Billings has ‘been the backbone of the Commission and its greatest supporter. [She] has always contributed incredible and consistent substance to the Commission’s work and approached that work with amazingly thoughtful preparation.’ Cheshire described Billings as ‘the most important person who has ever served on the Commission and said everyone owes an enormous debt of gratitude for the time, passion, understanding, and brilliance that Billings brought to IDS, for the credibility that she brought to the Commission, and for her willingness to stand and fight with us.’
IDS expresses its deepest condolences to Justice Billings’ family, friends and colleagues.
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