Charlotte legal aid luminary Ted Fillette honored as legal “superstar”

CHARLOTTE · March 22, 2019 – The Litigation Section of the North Carolina Bar Association has honored Ted Fillette, a career-long civil legal aid lawyer and champion of housing rights for the poor, as the 11th recipient of the section’s prestigious Advocate’s Award, which recognizes “superstars” of the legal profession. Ted received his award Feb. 13 at an event in Charlotte.

Ted retired as the head of our Charlotte office in March 2018, finishing out a 45-year career as a civil legal aid lawyer in North Carolina. For all but one of those years, Ted worked in Charlotte, becoming a leader of the city’s legal aid community and one of the state’s foremost housing-rights advocates.

“For over 40 years, Ted Fillette has been a zealous and tireless advocate for the poor and vulnerable in North Carolina,” George Hausen, executive director of Legal Aid of North Carolina, told North Carolina Lawyer in 2018. “It is impossible to overstate his impact: Tens of thousands of families, those facing eviction and homelessness or living in unhealthy substandard and dangerous conditions, have benefitted directly and indirectly from his work.

“Over his extraordinary career, his legal work, both as a litigator and as a policy maker, have literally shaped housing law in our state as well as nationally. His advocacy and leadership have helped to create the legislative and common law protections that we now use to preserve decent, affordable housing for low-income North Carolinians.”

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