The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to make a meaningful difference for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
Feature
Attorneys needed for virtual disaster hotline June 11!
News
Robinson Bradshaw, Smith Anderson participate in Summer Associate Program
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to make a meaningful difference for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
Feature
Seeking sponsors for MLK Internship Program
News
Lawyer on the Line going gangbusters!
Spring break pro bono in the spotlight!
Congratulations to Robinson Bradshaw’s John Wester!
Get ready, Raleigh!
Save the Date! Annual Day of Giving: April 30
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership
“Truly incredible” service at March’s Courthouse Clinics
Thank you, Moore & Van Allen and Wells Fargo!
Upcoming events
Don’t miss the midyear update!
Program Spotlight
Disaster Legal Services
Volunteer Spotlights
George Wigington – Deal Moseley di Santi Garrett & Martin, LLP
Ashley Hartman Sappenfield – Elon Law
Abigail Golden – Bowman and Brooke LLP
Peter Robinson
Pro Bono Go
Clinic: POAs for seniors in High Point, May 21
Clinic: POAs for seniors in Greensboro, May 28
Provide family law advice to domestic violence survivors!
Harassing landlord won’t recertify for subsidized housing
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
There’s transformation afoot!
FEMA appeals clinic with Cisco
FEMA appeals clinic with Amazon, Greenberg Traurig
Disaster relief clinics with Harvard Law, UNC Law
A plethora of pro bono events!
Don’t forget to report your pro bono hours!
CLE Calendar: The basics and ethics of estate planning and probate law
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership
Thank you, BofA and Womble Bond Dickinson!
Upcoming events
Program Spotlights
Immigration Pathways for Victims (IMMPAV)
Pro bono for nonprofits
Volunteer Spotlight: Kristin D. Mitcham, Ward & Smith
Pro Bono Go
Validate marriage to help wife access spouse’s estate
Harassing landlord won’t recertify for subsidized housing
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
Attorney volunteers needed for Helene-recovery events
A big thank you to our holiday season donors and Name Change Program volunteers
Upcoming events
Don’t forget to report your pro bono hours!
Thank you, NC Central Law!
Disaster Legal Services featured in NC Lawyer Magazine
New Pro Bono team members: Tricia Russ and Marquita Pittman
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership
Upcoming events
Thank you, Dechert and Wells Fargo
Program Spotlight: Child custody petition drafting
Volunteer Spotlight: Robert Culver, The Culver Law Firm
Pro Bono Go
Help tenant stay in her home! Potential affirmative suit against harassing landlord who will not recertify for subsidized housing
Help wife gain access to deceased husband’s estate by validating marriage
Help collect judgment for low-income tenant
Draft bylaws for community group recovering after Helene
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
Volunteer attorneys needed! Name changes open doors to education, employment, housing and benefits
Disaster Legal Services update
Pro bono reporting is live!
Disaster-relief duo join Pro Bono team
CLE replays! 6 days, 14 sessions, 17 credits!
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership: Upcoming events, thank you to Bradley and Honeywell
Program Spotlight: Summer Associate Pro Bono Program
Volunteer Spotlights
Sidney Thomas, NC Office of the Commissioner of Banks
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Table of contents
Give the gift of justice this holiday season
Let’s celebrate!
Our partners
Our volunteers
Now hiring: Join our Pro Bono team!
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership
Sign up for courthouse clinics on 12/16, 12/19
Housing volunteers serve Helene survivors
Program Spotlight: Disaster Legal Services
Volunteer Spotlight: Kate L. Eaton, Bridges EXP
Pro Bono Go
Housing conditions advice (attorneys only)
Brief advice in rural DV Protective Order cases
Grandparent guardians seek custody of grandchildren
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Items in this issue include:
Meet our 2024 Pro Bono Hero Award winners!
Join our Pro Bono Programs team!
Tropical Storm Helene update
Meet our local pro bono coordinators!
Drink Legalade!
CLE Calendar: Serving those affected by Tropical Storm Helene
Charlotte Triage Pro Bono Partnership: Thank you, Lawyer on the Line volunteers!
Program Spotlight: Pro bono for nonprofits
Volunteer Spotlights
Bárbara Herrera, Morrisville
Diana Santos Johnson, Waldrep Wall, Winston-Salem
Pro Bono Go
Housing conditions advice (attorneys only)
Brief advice in rural DV Protective Order cases
Grandparent guardians seek custody of grandchildren
Much of our pro bono activities are run by our central Pro Bono Programs team, which is based in our Raleigh headquarters, but four of our field offices have staff members who manage pro bono in their offices’ service areas. Keep reading to learn more about them!
Sharon C. Council – Durham Office
Office service area: Caswell, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Person, Vance and Warren counties
Sharon has served as the pro bono coordinator in our Durham office for over 30 years. She has led numerous successful local projects to recruit attorneys, such as the Count-Me-In Pro Bono effort, where 50 cases were referred to the Durham Bar over four months in 2011. She has partnered with Womble Bond Dickinson, Moore & Van Allen, GSK and other large organizations to refer housing and expunction cases, and she has long-running pro bono partnerships with the law schools at Duke, NC Central and UNC. She personally coordinates the pro bono efforts of NC Central’s Elder Law Clinic, which provides wills and advanced directives to Durham seniors. In 2018, Sharon received the NC Equal Justice Alliance’s John Lea Award, which honors staff of legal aid groups who demonstrate dedication to their organization’s mission, make outstanding contributions, and show exceptional involvement in the low-income community.
Renee Gabriel-Morrison – Greensboro Office
Office service area: Davidson, Guilford, Montgomery, Randolph, Rockingham and Rowan counties
Soon after joining us in 1999 as a paralegal in our Greensboro office, Renee’s many talents earned her a promotion to pro bono coordinator, in which role she has become the face of pro bono in the office’s service area. An innovator, Renee has recruited criminal law attorneys to handle expunctions and has been active with Thrive GSO a city-sponsored reentry program in Greensboro. She has gained enough expunction expertise to allow her to draft petitions for our staff and volunteer attorneys. Since its inception, she has coordinated the office’s award-winning Randolph County domestic violence program, which involves a rotating group of four attorneys who represent domestic violence survivors in court. Renee brings experience and excellence to her job and has helped maintain relationships with local bars that have long-lasting positive effects for our clients.
Claudette Harvey – Gastonia Office
Office service area: Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties
Claudette wears many caps in the Gastonia office: receptionist, paralegal, office manager and all-around support person. On top of all that, she manages to find time to serve as the office’s pro bono coordinator! Claudette has a heart of gold and goes above and beyond to find pro bono volunteers for clients. She’s helped facilitate representation for clients who need wills, estate work, expungements and various consumer matters. Perhaps her most impressive work is with a small but mighty group of volunteer attorneys who tackle cases in one of our most challenging practice areas: child custody. Thanks to Claudette’s efforts over the years, numerous adult survivors of domestic violence, as well as children who have lived through abuse and neglect, have now found a sense of safety and stability in their lives.
Teresa Poor – Smoky Mountain Offices
Office service area: Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, and the Territory of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Teresa Poor has been Pro Bono coordinator at Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Smoky Mountain Offices for more than a decade. In addition to numerous other duties with the office, she has cultivated relationships with the private bar and facilitated pro bono or affordable representation in numerous cases. Teresa has been particularly effective in referrals of social security and bankruptcy matters but has done an excellent job in other areas as well. In one notable recent example, Teresa arranged for pro bono divorce and equitable distribution representation for a survivor who had been shot multiple times at her workplace by her abuser. Teresa has also worked tirelessly in making sure clinics with the UNC Law pro bono program run smoothly.
Author: Sean Driscoll
Legal Aid of North Carolina is marking the start of the National Celebration of Pro Bono, held annually throughout the last week of October, by announcing this year’s winners of our Pro Bono Hero Awards.
Launched in 2023, the awards recognize remarkable pro bono service on behalf of our clients and law firm — service that we hope serves as an inspiring example to the NC legal community. The awards also celebrate the diversity of the forms of pro bono service from which our clients and organization benefit, and the diversity of the volunteers themselves.
Allison Constance, Director of Pro Bono Programs for Legal Aid NC, said, “This year’s slate of honorees shows just how varied in form — but equal in impact — pro bono service can be.
“Whether it’s serving numerous clients in a single year or serving a single client for numerous years, helping us launch a new program or dedicating oneself to an existing one, serving our clients or serving our firm as a client, all of this year’s honorees are vital partners on our mission to provide equal justice for North Carolinians in need.”
Honeywell
We honor Honeywell for demonstrating remarkable commitment to our housing and domestic violence clients, especially through the service of Dawn Savarese and Kris Pickler, who have gone above and beyond on behalf of our clients and our firm. Learn more about Honeywell from Larissa Mañón Mervin, Regional Managing Attorney for our southern piedmont region, and Hannah Guerrier, our Charlotte Community Engagement Manager.
Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson, P.A.
We honor Robinson Bradshaw for its long record of pro bono service to our firm and clients, including this summer’s launch of our Summer Associate Pro Bono Program. Special thanks to Blaine Sanders, Julian Wright and John Wester for their leadership and support. Learn more about Robinson Bradshaw from Allison Constance, our Director of Pro Bono Programs.
Sneed & Stearns, P.A.
We honor Sneed & Stearns for its remarkable dedication to our clients and firm in the wake of Tropical Storm Helene. Immediately following the storm, partner Anna Stearns and her team immediately opened their doors to us, providing information, advice, and representation to Legal Aid NC clients and even training their staff to conduct client intake. Learn more about Sneed & Stearns from Allison Constance, our Director of Pro Bono Programs.
Aishah Reed Foster
We honor Aishaah Reed Foster of Moore & Van Allen for showing remarkable dedication to our domestic violence clients both in Charlotte and via remote service to clients in Western North Carolina. Learn more about Aishaah from Larissa Mañón Mervin, Regional Managing Attorney for our southern piedmont region.
Amily McCool
We honor Amily McCool, owner and sole practitioner of the Scharff Law Firm in Raleigh, for her extraordinary, successful and yearslong representation of a client of our Fair Housing Project, and for her and consistent willingness to help with a variety of pro bono matters. Learn more about Amily and her remarkable dedication in this case from Kelly Clarke, Director of our Fair Housing Project.
Brad Banias
We honor Brad Banias of Banias Law, LLC, for rendering remarkable pro bono service to clients of our Immigration Pathways for Victims (IMMPAV) unit in recent years. Learn more about Brad from Anna Cushman, supervising attorney with IMMPAV.
David Lindsay
We honor David C. Lindsay of K&L Gates LLP for providing pro bono legal services on employment issues to Legal Aid of North Carolina for more than 20 years. Learn more about David from Celia Pistolis, our Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.
Jon Powell
We honor Jon Powell, Director of the Restorative Justice Clinic at Campbell Law, for always being ready, willing and able to help and inspire our Right to Education Project. Learn more about Jon from Hetali Lodaya, attorney with our Right to Education Project.
Peter Robinson
We honor Peter Robinson, a Raleigh-based international criminal trial lawyer, who goes above and beyond to serve our expunction clients, with a particular emphasis on serving clients in legal deserts. Learn more about Peter from Emily Mistr, the Director of our Second Chance Project.
Author: Sean Driscoll
The new issue of our pro bono newsletter is hot off the presses! Learn about all the innovative and impactful ways we partner with the private bar to provide access to justice for North Carolinians in need.
Items in this special Tropical Storm Helene edition include:
Tropical Storm Helene
How to Help: Serve, Give, Spread the Word
Patience and Preparation: The watchwords of post-disaster pro bono
Other News
National Celebration of Pro Bono starts soon!
Charlotte Triage marks 6th anniversary
BofA, Baker Donelson organize Triage clinics
Ashley Edwards-Davis joins Pro Bono team
CLE calendar
A Not-So-Scary Pro Bono Primer
Domestic Violence Awareness Month: True crime in the courtroom
Program Spotlight: Second Chance Project
Volunteer Spotlight: Evan Lewis
Pro Bono Go
Grandparent guardians seek custody of grandchildren
