N.C. legal services attorney and advocate Ashley Campbell takes the helm

Campbell assumes the role as Legal Aid of North Carolina celebrates its 20th anniversary and seeks to grow the organization’s impact. To learn more, donate, volunteer and get involved, visit legalaidnc.org.

“Ashley started her legal career as a staff attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina in 2003 and has been a valued volunteer and legal services advocate ever since,” explained Gonzalo Frias, managing counsel with Wells Fargo’s legal department and chair of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s board of directors. “She has built a distinguished career and impressive track record of increasing access to justice in various leadership roles. We are honored to have her as this organization’s next CEO.”

“We do this work because we are passionately committed to the idea that all people are entitled to fair representation in our courts,” said Campbell. “I look forward to working with our donors, staff and legal services partners to do everything that we can to increase access to justice for all North Carolinians.”

Campbell began her career at Legal Aid of North Carolina in 2003 representing clients in the areas of landlord tenant and domestic violence in Gaston, Cleveland and Lincoln counties. During that time, Campbell was supervised and trained by legendary housing attorney Ted Fillette, with whom she brought an appeal to the N.C. Court of Appeals, resulting in a decision that reaffirmed the rights of residential tenants to safe and habitable housing. The case (Dean v. Hill, 171 N.C.App. 479, July 2005) has since been cited by the North Carolina appellate courts more than a dozen times.

In 2005, Campbell worked at the N.C. General Assembly as a non-partisan staff attorney in the Bill Drafting division and committee counsel to the House Finance Committee. In the years that followed, Campbell became an experienced real estate and commercial litigator at Ragsdale Liggett. In 2016, she transitioned her practice to Campbell Law School where she served as director of the Blanchard Community Law Clinic. She led a team of lawyers, administrators and law students to provide legal services in the areas of criminal record expunction, driver’s license restoration, debt remediation, landlord/tenant and domestic violence representation.

Campbell’s professional accomplishments have been honored by the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys, North Carolina Lawyers Weekly and the Triangle Business Journal. She has been named to North Carolina Super Lawyers® multiple times and has been a “Best Lawyer in America” in commercial and real estate litigation since 2016. In 2017, she became president of the Wake County Bar Association where she championed pro bono service and fundraising for Legal Aid of North Carolina. She transformed the Bar leadership nominating process to recruit more diverse leadership into the Bar, which remains one of the most diverse in the state.

Campbell is a member of the Chief Justice’s Equal Access to Justice Commission and the Chief Justice’s Faith and Justice Alliance. She is also past president of the Tenth Judicial District Bar. She was nominated by her peers in the Tenth Judicial District in January 2022 to serve on the State Bar Council, a position she took to work on regulatory change issues to increase access to justice. 

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About

Legal Aid of North Carolina is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income people in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity. Learn more at legalaidnc.org. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Need legal help? Call 1-866-219-5262 (toll-free) or apply online at legalaidnc.org/apply.

Media Contact

Helen Hobson, Chief Communications Officer, 704-430-7616, HelenH2@legalaidnc.org

Dorsey’s accomplishments include establishing a new field office for Legal Services of North Carolina that covered six counties in the western region; implementing the launch of the new NC Medicaid Ombudsman program on a very short timeline; and developing Legal Aid NC’s Senior Law Project into a 17-person statewide project, including starting a stand-alone Senior Legal Helpline.

George Hausen, Executive Director of Legal Aid NC, referred to Dorsey as a “trailblazer, single-handedly creating pathways to justice, where previously there were none.” He described her as a leading expert in government benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. “What makes Angie such a wonderful leader,” he said, “is that she combines the passion and empathy to make clients feel heard and empowered with the vision to make access to legal justice a reality.”

Meredith Gregory, Legal Aid NC’s Managing Attorney of its Senior Law Project, said that Dorsey has represented countless clients in accessing a basic income and basic healthcare, has secured grant funds to continue Legal Aid’s work, and answers her colleagues’ questions on everything “from a complex Medicaid issue, to a funder’s compliance question, to how to fix a broken drawer.”

Dorsey currently manages Legal Aid NC’s western region, a 27-county area stretching from Charlotte and Concord up to Boone and over to Murphy. She has performed leadership roles in the national development of senior legal helplines and has led pro bono efforts of state and local bar associations. She is also known for her volunteer work, including serving on the board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Western Carolina.

Dorsey has raised two sons and lives in Arden, North Carolina, with her husband, two cats, and a dog.

Media Contact

Bryan Alexander, Legal Aid of North Carolina, 404-273-3104, bryana@legalaidnc.org