Pro Bono Update

Smith Anderson wills clinic

Attorneys from Smith Anderson joined us June 7 at the historic Martin Street Baptist Church in downtown Raleigh to provide pro bono wills and advanced directives to low-income residents of Southeast Raleigh, a historically Black and underserved community.

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Elon Law wills clinic

Teamwork makes the dream work! Our Pro Bono Programs team and Veterans Law Project recently partnered with Elon Law's Wills Drafting Clinic and three pro bono attorneys to provide free wills and advanced directives to senior citizens and veterans in the Greensboro area.

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Western NC heir property clinics

Our Disaster Relief Project was in Western NC recently holding legal education clinics about heir property — homes or land inherited informally, without a will. Heir property owners can face obstacles to proving ownership of their property at critical times, like when applying for aid following a natural disaster.

Learn more about:

• The clinics
• Our Heir Property Pro Bono Project

NC Pro Bono Honor Society 2023

Congratulations — and thank you! — to all the Legal Aid NC volunteers inducted into the Pro Bono Honor Society this year. We can't do what we do without you!

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Free trainings for pro bono volunteers

Did you know that you can gain access to free trainings from the Practicing Law Institute to assist with your pro bono work? Apply for a pro bono scholarship and hone your skills to make yourself an even stronger advocate.

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Fighting imposter syndrome

Thu, July 18, 12 - 1 PM · 1 hr, Professional Well-Being credit

Imposter syndrome affects an overwhelming number of legal professionals, creating barriers to reaching one’s full career potential and providing the best possible client service. Together, we’ll explore what imposter syndrome is, why it matters, and what we can do about it — both as individuals and as leaders.

Our pro bono volunteers can use discount code LANCVolunteer (case sensitive) to register for free.

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The Child's Advocate

The Child’s Advocate provides client-directed representation for children impacted and often traumatized by their parents’ contentious private custody cases. Pro bono volunteers represent children through the custody action, should have 3+ years of family law experience, and will be trained in the TCA model to give vulnerable children a real voice.

Learn more and sign up!

UNC Law Economic Justice Clinic

Chapel Hill

Congratulations — and thank you! — to Kate Sablosky Elengold, Director of the Economic Justice Clinic at UNC Law, and her students for scoring an $11,000 settlement for one of our housing clients.

Our client came to us as a defendant in an eviction and debt collection case, with the landlord claiming our client owed them thousands of dollars. We referred the case to Elengold and her students and they got to work, eventually filing a counterclaim alleging violations of NC's Debt Collection Act and the Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices law.

In addition to the monetary payment, the settlement included the dismissal of all claims against our client and a written apology from the landlord.

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Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm

Charlotte

Our sincerest thanks go to everyone at the Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm, which we honored May 21 at the Mecklenburg Bar Association/26th JD Bar Annual Meeting for their dedicated, selfless service to our clients.

Since last fall, eight Garfinkel Immigration lawyers have provided pro bono service to 12 clients of our Immigration Pathways for Victims (IMMPAV) project.

The clients are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault who hold U visas, which allow immigrant victims of certain crimes to temporarily live and work in the US if they have helped law enforcement investigate or prosecute criminal activity. The Garfinkel attorneys helped our clients apply to renew their employment authorization and to become lawful permanent residents.

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Mark Kinghorn

Charlotte

Our sincerest thanks go to Mark Kinghorn from McGuireWoods LLP, whom we honored May 21 at the Mecklenburg Bar Association/26th JD Bar Annual Meeting for his dedicated, selfless pro bono service to our clients.

Last year, Mark successfully wrapped up five years of service to one of our housing clients.

Hannah Guerrier (pictured below), our Charlotte Community Engagement Manager, who presented the award, said, "Mark's herculean, steadfast efforts on behalf of our client in the face of a highly litigious opposing party prevented our client's eviction and saved them from having to pay the opposing party a ruinously high sum of money. Thanks to Mark, the client is now living in a new housing situation with a clean eviction record and is unburdened by a catastrophic debt."

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