Transition Board
Legal Aid of North Carolina
Prior to full operation of Legal Aid of North Carolina, a Transition Board of
Directors" (or "Transition Board") was formed to create the structure for the
new, statewide legal aid program. The Transition Board and its various
committees worked vigorously over a 15-month period and fulfilled its charge to
have the new entity (which it named "Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc.")
operational by July 1, 2002.
MINUTES
The Transition Board met 14 times from April 2, 2001 through June 28, 2002.
Minutes were recorded for each of its 14 meetings:
Minutes
- April 2, 2001
Minutes
- April 27, 2001
Minutes -
May 24, 2001
Minutes
- June 15, 2001
Minutes
- July 27, 2001
Minutes - September 28, 2001
Minutes - October 26, 2001
Minutes - November 30, 2001
Minutes - January 24, 2002
Minutes - February 22, 2002
Minutes - March 28, 2002
Minutes - April 26, 2002
Minutes
- May 31, 2002
Minutes
- June 28, 2002
Memos to Employees
A Transition Board website was maintained (including minutes of the
Transition Board meetings) to keep the Legal Services community informed of its
progress. Also, memos were sent to employees of the four involved
programs, such as:
Memo: "Legal Services Personnel Needs
for 2002" (April 27, 2001)
Memo: "Name of New Organization" (July
18, 2001)
Media Release
Consensus and agreement was reached by the boards of directors of the four,
LSC-funded organizations regarding the recommendations of the "Transition Board"
in June 2002. A
media release
was distributed at the request of the Transition Board on June 24, 2002.
The new, statewide program, "Legal Aid of North Carolina, Inc." began full
operations on July 1, 2002.
Background/History
The creation of the "Transition Board" and new 501(c)3 corporation was the
next positive step toward addressing the organizational structure issues that
had been mandated in 1998 by Legal Services Corporation’s Program Letters 98-1
and 98-6 (which required a statewide planning process) and the 1998 report from
NC Commission on the Delivery of Civil Legal Services (which had been created by
the NC Bar Association and the State Bar and recommended a single corporate
entity).
With the encouragement and support of the North Carolina Bar Association and
IOLTA ("Interest On Legal Trust Accounts"), the Legal Services community had
responded through formation of the Legal Services Planning Council ("Planning
Council"), which included representatives from the four LSC-funded programs
(LSNC, LANNC, LSSP, NCLAP), non-LSC-funded programs such as the NC Justice &
Community Development Center and special providers serving particular
constituencies in North Carolina. The 13-member Planning Council has met on a
monthly basis since May 1999, retained a consultant who had been involved in
state planning efforts in other states, and submitted a preliminary progress
report on it progress toward common goals in early 2000.
The Planning Council had convened two statewide meetings in 2000 for input,
discussion and consensus-building by the legal services community: the first on
June 15-16, 2000 near Greensboro regarding core values; the second on October
23-24, 2000 near Winston-Salem regarding consideration of various configuration
models. Following multiple meetings of the Planning Council in November and
December, agreement was reached in mid-January 2001 to present a proposal for
the creation of a new 501(c)3 corporation for consideration by the boards of the
four LSC-funded legal organizations, each of which provided four representatives
for the Transition Board.
Statement by Transition Board Chair
"People put aside selfish motives and self-interests to create a
statewide program that will be efficient and will be able
to work
together for the clients. Legal Aid of North Carolina
is ready
to go forward in a way that the Transition Board will be
proud of.
The sixteen people who came together as the Transition
Board
have a done a marvelous job and the Legal community
extends
its thanks to each of them."
-Pender R. McElroy,
Chairman, Legal Aid of North Carolina Transition Board
June 28, 2002 (Last Transition Board Meeting)
Disclaimer
The materials contained on this website
are for information and educational purposes only and do not
constitute legal advice.
Also please note that Legal Aid of North Carolina does not
provide legal assistance by E-mail. 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.