With Abundant Population Comes Abundant Need: Metropolitan-Area Attorneys Are Answering The Call
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.
More than half of North Carolina’s citizens reside in the state’s three largest metropolitan statistical areas, commonly known as the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point), the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and the Charlotte area (Charlotte, Concord, Gastonia).
Numbering well over six million residents, these areas are home to the state’s largest universities and many of its most successful businesses and industries. As these areas continue to grow and prosper, the unmet legal needs of their poorest citizens also continue to grow.
The fifth edition of the North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society, announced earlier this year by the N.C. Pro Bono Resource Center, was filled with the names of North Carolina lawyers who stepped forward last year to provide pro bono legal assistance in the state’s largest cities and surrounding towns.
The NCBF Open Door Fellowship is a unique, competitive opportunity for first-year North Carolina law students. Open Door Fellows gain valuable, hands-on legal experience while widening their professional networks to “open doors” and prepare them for the next steps in their legal careers. We seek applications from first-year law students who have demonstrated a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion…
Collaboration lies at the heart of the most successful, sustainable pro bono programs. What do NCBF volunteer programs such as Wills for Heroes, Disaster Legal Services and Lawyers for Literacy have in common? They are successful initiatives born of the commitment of NCBA members with the support of Foundation programs staff, often in concert with schools and legal services organizations…
In 2022-23, 244 NC Free Legal Answer volunteer attorneys answered 2,283 questions from North Carolinians. North Carolina attorneys have been serving residents in need online since 2018, through the power of the ABA’s Free Legal Answers (FLA) platform. Here, virtual connections can be made at any time of the day or night. Those who financially qualify can have their civil…