About Benita N.
Benita N. Jones earned her undergraduate degree at Yale University and took her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Those two schools set a clear academic track. Yale offered a broad liberal arts foundation. Georgetown supplied intensive legal training and exposure to national issues.
Her early legal work included an Education Law fellowship at the University of North Carolina School of Law. That post placed her inside an academic setting where policy, student rights, and school governance intersect. The fellowship also gave her practical experience advising on regulatory and compliance questions that affect educational institutions.
Jones spent time in private practice as well. She worked at Klein Hornig, LLP early in her career and later joined Tharrington Smith as a lawyer in 2011. At both firms she took on roles typical of firm practice: client counseling, case preparation and courtroom work. Those years added litigation and transactional experience to the public law perspective she developed during the fellowship.
She is licensed in North Carolina and Virginia, which has allowed her to handle matters in both states. That dual admission has been useful for addressing cross-border issues and for representing clients whose matters touch multiple jurisdictions. It has also meant adapting to different procedural rules and local court practices while maintaining the same basic legal analysis and advocacy.
In recent years her work has been linked to academic institutions. She maintains an office at North Carolina Central University and has continued to engage on matters that connect law and education. Her background combines academic study, an education law fellowship, and years in firm practice. As of 2026 she concentrates her practice on legal issues affecting educational entities and related matters in North Carolina and Virginia.
