History
Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) is a statewide, nonprofit law firm that began
operations on July 1, 2002 as a result of a consolidation of multiple, legal
services (nonprofit) law firms, each with a 25+ year history of serving
low-income people in North Carolina. These law firms were established to
provide legal services in civil matters to low-income people, so that they could
have equal access to justice in North Carolina.
In the early 1960s, our nation was responding to a call to service and justice
articulated by such leaders as newly elected President John F. Kennedy and the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Members of the
NC State
Bar and other citizens in Forsyth, Mecklenburg and Durham counties
demonstrated their commitment to equal justice under law by establishing legal
aid organizations to assist people living in poverty to protect their rights in
civil cases. The
Legal Aid
Society of Northwest North Carolina (LASNNC, Winston-Salem),
Legal Services of
Southern Piedmont (LSSP; Charlotte) and North Central Legal Assistance
Program (NCLAP, Durham) was created as the result of that work.
The Forsyth County Junior Bar Association won the 1962 Harrison Tweed Award for
opening The Legal Aid Society of Forsyth County on February 1 of that year and
by 1965 it was receiving OEO funding. In 1966, the Mecklenburg County Bar
and the Charlotte Area Fund raised local matching funds to qualify for a grant
from the federal Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), and on September 1, 1967
they opened the Mecklenburg County Legal Aid Society (later named Legal Services
of Southern Piedmont, LSSP). In 1968, the Duke University Center on Law
and Poverty opened a downtown office, which it called the "Durham Legal Aid
Clinic" (later know as North Carolina Legal Assistance Program, NCLAP) and by
1971, the clinic had OEO funding of its own and an established identity as a
community legal assistance program.
When the
Legal
Services Corporation (LSC) took over the legal assistance activities of the
OEO in 1975, all three independent providers were funded by it. They
subsequently worked with LSC and the North Carolina Bar Association to establish
Legal Services of North Carolina, with which they have frequently collaborated
over the subsequent years.
Subsequently, through the support of local law bars, the NC Bar Association and
individual attorneys, twelve, regional, LSC-funded legal services law firms were
founded and expanded in North Carolina, including the following:
Legal Services Program
(& office location)
Year Established
Central Carolina Legal Services
(Greensboro) 1966
East Central Community Legal Services
(Raleigh) 1974
Western North Carolina Legal Services
(Sylva) 1974
North State Legal Services
(Hillsborough) 1976
Legal Services of the Lower Cape Fear
(Wilmington) 1976
Lumbee River Legal Services
(Pembroke) 1978
Pisgah Legal Services
(Asheville) 1978
Legal Services of the Coastal Plains
(Ahoskie) 1979
Legal Services of the Blue Ridge
(Boone) 1979
Catawba Valley Legal Services
(Morganton) 1979
Eastern North Carolina Legal Services
(Wilson) 1980
Pamlico Sound Legal Services
(New Bern) 1981
Legal Aid of North Carolina (LSNC) was created in 1976, as the result of a lengthy and
careful study by the
North Carolina
Bar Association’s Special Committee on Indigent Legal Services Delivery
Systems. The Committee studied the legal needs of the poor and the
alternative delivery systems available to fulfill those needs. In 1976, at
its annual meeting, the NCBA approved the recommendation of the Special
Committee to establish a statewide institution that would serve the legal needs
of the poor. LSNC received its incorporation on May 19, 1976. From
1976—1998, or twenty-two years, LSNC existed as a confederation of the 12
above-listed, separately incorporated, geographically based, nonprofit legal
services organizations (covering 83 of the 100 counties in North Carolina),
which included an administrative office and a statewide board of directors—the
only legal services program in the country to have ever been constituted as a
confederation.
In 1998, upon the recommendation of the North Carolina Commission on the
Delivery of Civil Legal Services and as required by the Legal Services
Corporation, LSNC was reorganized as a single corporation on the model of the
University of North Carolina (UNC) system at midnight, December 31, 1998.
The LSNC statewide board of directors has been expanded to include
representatives from each of the local programs. This central board
existed to provide the ultimate governance the Legal Services Corporation
required, but it was also required to delegate to the local boards of trustees
the powers the local boards had enjoyed previously: To set local case
priorities, develop and submit budgets, hire staff, and to raise and retain all
local funds in the local community. Pisgah Legal Services (which serves
six counties: Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania
counties) remained an independent (and non-LSC-funded, i.e., “unrestricted”)
program, and LSNC created the Appalachian Legal Services office (located in
Asheville) to serve those respective counties. LSSP (Charlotte), LASNNC
(Winston-Salem) and NCLAP (Durham) also chose to remain as independent programs,
but continued to accept LSC (“restricted”) funding.
In January and February 2001, the Board of Directors of each of the four
LSC-funded programs adopted a resolution endorsing the creation of a new,
statewide program to apply for LSC funding for 2002 and beyond and endorsing the
immediate creation of a new, 501(c)(3) corporation, governed by a “Transition
Board” (composed of attorneys and clients by each of the four current LSC-funded
program Boards) to design and create the new statewide, LSC-funded program.
The
“Transition Board”, composed of four representatives (two attorneys and two
client representatives) from each program, was established to develop the basic
organizational structure and governance policies of the new program, which was
named “Legal Aid of North Carolina” (LANC). Because LSSP (Charlotte),
LASNNC (Winston-Salem) and Pisgah Legal Services (Asheville) decided to be
independent, non-LSC-funded organizations (and not part of the new LANC firm),
new Legal Aid of North Carolina offices were established in 2002 in Charlotte, Winston-Salem
and Asheville.
Full approval of the consolidation plan by all four boards of directors took
place in May 2002. Legal Aid of North Carolina began operations as a new
nonprofit law firm on July 1, 2002, to provide legal services in civil matters
to low-income people in all 100 counties of North Carolina through 32
geographically located offices, so that low-income people (those at or below
125% of the federally established poverty level) throughout North Carolina could
have equal access to justice and to economic opportunity.
Disclaimer
The materials contained on this website are for information and educational
purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Please contact your
Legal Aid of North Carolina office or a private attorney if you need to speak to
an attorney regarding your particular situation. See our complete
disclaimer.
Mission Statement
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.