Legal Aid honors 2009 pro bono efforts in Winston Salem
On Thursday, March 25, 2010, the
Winston-Salem office of
Legal Aid of North Carolina held its third annual pro
bono celebration to recognize the pro bono efforts of our
local attorneys. The time, hard work and dedication of our
local attorney volunteers made
it possible to provide legal assistance to even more clients in
2009. [To volunteer in 2010, click
here.]
Welcome
[Click
here to view "Pro
Bono Celebration" program (a pdf document).]
The event and reception were held in
the Upper Level of the Liberty Plaza Building (building in which the
LANC-Winston-Salem Office is located) in downtown Winston-Salem.
Celeste Harris, Chair of the
LANC-Winston-Salem Office Local Advisory Council and Vice-Chair,
LANC Board of Directors, welcomed everyone.
Speaker
Gene R. Nichol (UNC Professor of Law and Director, Center
on
Poverty, Work and Opportunity,
UNC School of Law) was
the guest speaker. Nichol spoke about
his rewarding experiences
doing pro bono work, and encouraged the private bar members in
attendance to get their colleagues involved in pro bono work for
LANC.
2009 Pro Bono Awards Recipients (see photos
below)
4
Volunteer Attorney of the Year:
Paul
C. Shepard
4 Family Law Volunteer Attorney of the Year,
Rural Counties:
Susan Brotherton
4 Family Law Attorney of the Year, Forsyth
County:
Lorraine Mortis
4 Consumer/Housing Volunteer Attorney of the Year:
Alton L. Absher, III
4
Firm of the Year:
Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge, & Rice, PLLC, Winston-Salem
4 Volunteer
Law Clerk
Monique Hannam
The LANC-Winston-Salem Office also recognized
46 pro bono attorneys
(see list below)
who took a case and/or co-counseled with LANC in 2009.
Jean Witherspoon
(PAI Coordinator, LANC-Winston-
Salem
Office) presented a certificate of appreciation to each
pro bono attorney and thanked all the pro bono attorneys for
dedication to LANC clients in 2009.
Closing Remarks
Closing and thank you comments were provided by Hazel Mack-Hillard,
Regional Manager, LANC Triad Region;.
Thanks to all of our pro bono attorneys for the work you do for our
clients!!!
___________
PHOTOS...
Paul
C. Shepard (Paul C. Shepard,
Attorney
at law, Winston-Salem) received
the Volunteer Attorney of the Year
Award. Yvette Stackhouse (Managing
Attorney, LANC-Winston- Salem Office)
presented his award. Shepard's solo practice
was founded in 1985 in Winston-Salem. He
has performed pro bono work for years and presently serves on the Local Advisory Council of
the LANC-Winston-Salem Office. Shepard went above and beyond
on a particular family law case in 2009, putting is many volunteer
hours that resulted in a favorable outcome for the client.
Susan Brotherton
(Sole Practitioner,
Statesville, NC) received the award for
Family Law Volunteer Attorney of
the
Year, Rural Cases. The award was
presented by Valene K. Franco (Managing
Attorney -
Family Law Unit, LANC-
Winston- Salem Office). Brotherton
continues to take numerous cases for LANC
clients in Iredell County. Without her
volunteer services in 2009, many the low-income clients in that
rural area would have gone without legal assistance.
Lorraine Mortis
(Lorraine Mortis
Attorney at
Law, Winston-Salem, NC)
received the award for Family Law
Attorney of the Year, Forsyth County.
The
award was presented by Valene K.
Franco (Managing Attorney -
Family Law
Unit, LANC- Winston- Salem Office). A
former Legal
Aid Society of Northwest NC
family law attorney,
Mortis continues to support Legal Aid by volunteering her time and
expertise to domestic violence clients. Her willingness to
help and compassion for our clients in 2009 was invaluable to LANC.
Alton L. Absher, III (Associate,
Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP, Winston-
Salem, NC) received the Consumer/
Housing Volunteer Attorney of the
Year Award, which was presented by Liza
Baron (Managing Attorney - Housing,
Education, Employment, Consumer Unit,
LANC-Winston-Salem Office). Absher
spent many hours on a case while filing suit and negotiating a settlement
agreement with a builder to provide required repairs for our client.
Monique Hannam received the
Volunteer Law Clerk Award, which
was presented by Yvette Stackhouse
(Managing
Attorney, LANC-Winston- Salem Office). Monique is a licensed
attorney in Jamaica, and came to LANC
Winston-Salem office in 2009 to volunteer
as a law clerk. Her volunteer time provided
invaluable assistance to the entire staff.
Womble, Carlyle,
Sandridge, & Rice,
PLLC, Winston-Salem
received
recognition as Firm of the Year for its
strong commitment to pro bono support of
Safe on Seven, Forsyth
County’s domestic
violence center. The award was
presented by Valene Franco (Managing Attorney - Family law Unit, LANC-Winston-Salem Office).
Accepting the Award on behalf of the Womble Carlyle firm were
attorney
Chris Douglas, a leader of the firm’s Case
Management Facility Practice Team, and Leslie Gough,
a paralegal manager at the CMF, who have spearheaded the firm’s
innovative pro bono efforts to provide paralegals volunteers at Safe on Seven. More than 900
hours were logged by the volunteers.
2009 Volunteer
Attorneys,
LANC-Winston-Salem Office
*[Co-counseled with LANC-Winston-Salem staff in 2009.]
To
sign up to volunteer for pro bono service for our clients, click
here.
___
ALSO SEE:
"Kilpatrick Stockton Attorneys Honored for Pro Bono Work by Legal
Aid of North Carolina" (May 10, 2010, KS website article)
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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.