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NCBA Past Presidents Answer 4ALL Phones From Home On NC Lawyers’ “Best Day”

This article originally appeared in the August 2021 issue of North Carolina Lawyer Magazine. Read the complete article written by Russell Rawlings and view all NC Lawyer issues at ncbar.org/nc-lawyer.


Caryn McNeill hits the nail on the head, as she so often does, when she proclaims that “people helping people is what pro bono is really about.”

And that, she adds in reference to the North Carolina Bar Foundation’s 4ALL Statewide Service Day, “is why it always seems to me that the first Friday in March is the best day of the year to be an NC lawyer!”

McNeill has been on board with 4ALL since its inception, serving as co-chair of the first event in 2008 along with longtime law partner Martin Brinkley, who now serves as dean of UNC School of Law. President Janet Ward Black certainly knew what she was doing when she tabbed two future NCBA presidents to lead her effort to draw attention to the need for civil legal aid in North Carolina.