Shea Riggsbee Denning

Shea Riggsbee Denning is not only a UNC School of Government faculty member; she is a double Tar Heel. After earning an AB with distinction in journalism and mass communication from the University in 1994, and a JD with high honors from the UNC School of Law in 1997, she began her legal career by clerking for the Honorable Malcolm J. Howard, US District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, in Greenville. She then practiced law in Atlanta with the firm of King & Spalding before returning to North Carolina to work as a research attorney and then as an assistant federal defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina. She joined the SOG faculty in 2003. Denning’s scholarship focuses on motor vehicle law and criminal law and procedure. She teaches and advises judges, magistrates, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and law enforcement officers. She has written extensively about North Carolina’s motor vehicle laws, including a book on the law of impaired driving. She is a regular contributor to the North Carolina Criminal Law blog and a co-coauthor of Pulled Over: The Law of Traffic Stops and Offenses in North Carolina.

Fields of Expertise Courts Criminal Law and Procedure Driver's License Revocations Driving While Impaired Motor Vehicle Law Prosecutor Training