Intern Litigation

Summer 2006

<< 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. Summer Interns

Summer internships at LANC are for law students who want to gain experience working in a public interest setting and desire opportunities to do more than just legal research. Below are just a few examples of victories that LANC's 2006 summer interns scored for our clients:

LANC-Ahoskie Office - Housing

Intern helps client stay in residence
Reported by: Lynda Whitehead-Taylor, Staff Attorney
"MLK summer intern, Antonio Veal (NC Central School of Law) prevailed in a summary ejectment trial in Dare County. The case involved a 72-year-old man who lived in subsidized housing for the elderly and was being evicted because of a person on the ban list had visited him. After being informed that this person was banned, our client called to have her removed the next time she came to his apartment. The site manager used this information to evict the tenant because the banned person had come back after he was told she was banned. Our client would never have been able to find affordable housing anywhere else in Dar County. Good work, Antonio!"

LANC-Ahoskie Office - Public Benefits

Intern helps client get unemployment benefits
Reported by: Lynda Whitehead-Taylor, Staff Attorney
"MLK summer intern, Antonio Veal (NC Central School of Law) was successful in his first unemployment hearing. Our client had taken family leave for three days to attend her sister's funeral in Georgia and rode with other family members. Due to one family member not returning to Georgia on time, they found themselves leaving at 2:00 AM to try to get our client back to work for her Monday morning shift at 6:00 AM. She had documented cell phone calls she had made to her employer that she called at 5:18 AM and 5:20 Am leaving messages that she could not get there and requested another day of leave time that she had accumulated. The Human Resources Director of the manufacturing plant where she worked fired her for absenteeism and she was denied her unemployment. During a telephone hearing, Antonio was able to present the evidence necessary to prove our client had followed procedures, and she was awarded employment benefits all the way back to May 15 when she had applied."

Advocates for Children's Services (Durham) - Emergency Custody Order

Emergency Custody Order protects child from abusive guardians
Reported by: Lewis Pitts, Senior Managing Attorney
"A homeless and abused child was given a chance to live in a stable home after Jennifer Drorbaugh (UNC School of Law), the MLK summer intern for Advocates for Children's Services, took it upon herself to investigate the facts and recruit staff attorney Keith Howard to take prompt action to protect the child. The case began with Jennifer researching law on how to get the child, who had fled her home state to come to N.C. after being homeless for 5 months, into a N.C. public high school. After research into the facts, Jennifer realized that the case was more complex than she first thought. Due to the stress of being abused, the child attempted suicide and was placed in a hospital in NC. Jennifer then immediately helped draft a Complaint for Custody/Motion for Temporary Emergency Custody and a Temporary Emergency Order for the child's maternal cousin here in NC. Jennifer's Emergency Custody Order was signed and the child does not have to return to her abusive guardians and will enroll into public school in N.C. The child has expressed a desire to be an attorney due to Jennifer's passion and desire to help her. Jennifer, thank you for all of your hard work."

LANC-Asheville Office - FEMA assistance

Intern helps Katrina victim obtain FEMA assistance
Reported by: Angie Dorsey, Senior Managing Attorney
"An unemployed Hurricane Katrina evacuee in NC contacted our Katrina disaster legal assistance hotline. At the time of her call, she had been denied ongoing rental assistance from FEMA and had received no other assistance from FEMA. Our MLK summer intern, Jason Sorrel (Appalachian School of Law), investigated all of her post-disaster needs and assisted her with completing forms and documentation to FEMA. With Jason's help, client received $2784 for additional rental assistance from FEMA, $4500 for transportation, and $2500 to assist with replacing damaged personal property."

LANC-Asheville Office - Medicaid benefits

Intern's work results in client being awarded Medicaid benefits
Reported by: Angie Dorsey, Senior Managing Attorney
"Our MLK summer intern, Jason Sorrel (Appalachian School of Law), successfully represented a 30-year-old, HIV+ woman with severe bi-polar disorder at a Medicaid appeal. She was an SSI/Medicaid recipient prior to her incarceration. She was released from prison and had served her sentence. Her medical condition had not improved during her incarceration and had in fact, worsened. She reapplied for Medicaid benefits and was denied. She had numerous psychiatric prescriptions that were medically necessary but that she could not get filled because she had no money. Jason gathered all of her medical records, wrote a brief in support of her case, and represented her at a state Medicaid hearing. She was awarded Medicaid benefits through his diligent efforts."

LANC-Charlotte Office - Unemployment benefits

Intern helps client obtain unemployment benefits
Reported by: Cindy Patton, Managing Attorney
"A client was initially found disqualified for unemployment benefits because she was terminated for having left her child on a school bus unsupervised, allegedly in violation of a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) policy. The Employment Security Commission adjudicator decided that the client was disqualified for benefits because the reason she was discharged constituted misconduct connected with her work. The client appealed the decision and sought representation from the LANC-Charlotte Office. LANC's summer intern, Heather Cherry (Georgetown University School of Law), represented the client at the hearing. At the hearing, both the client and a former co-worker testified that no such policy existed. A CMS employee, appearing for the employer, admitted that there was no written policy. After the hearing, the Appeals Referee concluded that the competent evidence in the record failed to show that the client was discharged for substantial fault or misconduct connected with her work, thus entitling her to her full unemployment benefits."

LANC-Gastonia Office - Loan Renegotiation

Loan renegotiation allows client to retain her home
Reported by: Dimitri Varmazis, Staff Attorney
"Our summer intern, Sheila Tegomoh (University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis MN), has been instrumental in helping me with a consumer case this past month. The case involved a client that had defaulted in her mortgage payments, and whose house was about to be sold at a foreclosure sale. Sheila reviewed the loan documents to spot potential usurious fees, and helped me prep the client for the possibility of a bankruptcy filing. Sheila held extensive discussions with the representatives from the creditor bank, culminating in a loan renegotiation that allowed the client to retain her home while at the same time keep up with her payments. We succeeded in getting the bank to lower the client's interest rate and monthly payment."

LANC-Wilson Office - Preparation for Court

Intern's research heard in court
Reported by: John Keller, Supervising Attorney
"Our MLK summer intern, Gabriel Du Sablon (Ava Maria School of Law, Ann Arbor, MI), did some great work for us. We had a first time erisa issue and were trying to determine if there was merit to file a federal court action, and Gabe did a great memo. Gabe did a unemployment insurance (U/I) hearing. Gabe also did research for a subsidized housing eviction that was tried in Nash County District Court - so he got to hear his research being argued in court and presented in the trial brief."

LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Consumer Law

Intern helps Katrina victim get $1,000 refund
Reported by: Liza Baron, Managing Attorney
"Carson Miller (WFU School of Law) performed tasks well beyond what a typical 1L student would be able to do, and she did them very well. Due to Carson's diligence in searching court records and news stories, we were able to get a $1000 refund on furniture from a bad-actor local furniture store. They had been promising it for months, but did not actually fork up the money until we told them that we knew about the numerous lawsuits that had been filed against them, and all the news stories about them and their bad acts. The client, a Katrina evacuee, received his refund right before receiving his FEMA trailer and returning to the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. The timing was perfect for the client!"

LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Housing

Intern documents discovery and impacts subsidized housing case
Reported by: Liza Baron, Managing Attorney
"David Hagopian (WFU School of Law) took on, with a level of dedication and commitment as if it were his own case, the Herculean task of organizing the voluminous discovery (almost 7,000 pages) that our office received in the subsidized housing litigation that consumed our office during the first half of the summer. This involved stamping each page, photocopying each page, scanning each page, filling out a cover sheet for each document about what it represented and its importance to the litigation, entering the information from the cover sheet into a database, reviewing each step for errors, and correcting the errors. David worked on processing the discovery for at least three weeks straight himself, and also helped recruit and train other summer clerks and volunteers to pitch in as they were available. This process helped position us strongly for the successful mediation that ensued in this case."

LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Public Benefits

Intern helps client obtain retroactive benefits from SSA
Reported by: Liza Baron, Managing Attorney
"David Hoffman (WFU School of Law) helped a client obtain $16,000 in retroactive benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA). The client received SSI disability as a child due to cerebral palsy. However as an adult, the client began working and worked himself into insured status, which entitled him to Social Security Disability instead of SSI from 1988. Due to David's ability to understand the difference between the two disability programs and how an individual becomes insured, he was able to do the research, write the SSA, and have appropriate phone conversations in order to get the needed information to resolve the case. Although his calls to SSA (on a daily basis) were generally unanswered or were disconnected after holding on for a while, he was quite persistent which paid off. The client received his retroactive benefits of $16,000 on 7/28/06. In addition to this case, David also dedicated numerous hours of intense and detailed research to the issue of how receipt of government benefits such as food stamps, disability, Medicaid, etc., is affected by an award of a lump sum of money. He then applied what he learned to each plaintiff in the subsidized housing litigation, to analyze the impact of their individual settlement amount on the specific benefits each individual plaintiff received."

LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Public Benefits

Intern gets New York warrant dismissed
Reported by: Liza Baron, Managing Attorney
"David Hoffman (WFU School of Law) also assisted with great results in a fleeing felon case where our deaf and mute client's Social Security disability benefits were terminated due to a 1975 warrant for his arrest in Staten Island, NY. David's sharp mind and persistence helped us to resolve this case which we had been working on since 12/05. David got the New York warrant dismissed in a telephone conversation with the Staten Island DA's office, using creative constitutional arguments, and our client currently receives his disability benefits."

LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Employment

Intern drafts direct and cross examinations
Reported by: Liza Baron, Managing Attorney
"MLK summer intern Ali (Allison) Wagner (UNC School of Law) was an invaluable asset to the LANC-Winston-Salem Office. She was always prepared to work extra hours to assist our clients. Her involvement in preparation for a hearing before one of our local city governments in an employment termination case was critical. She drafted all of the direct and cross examinations (seven witnesses total), and also assisted in witness preparation and organization of exhibits. Her overall work ethic and attitude were impeccable."
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2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. Summer Interns:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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