Intern Litigation
Summer 2008
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 2008 summer interns scored for
our clients:
LANC-Advocates for Children's Services - Education Law
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) summer intern, Adrienne
Johnson (law student, NCCU School of Law), took the initiative,
recruited a friend, and did lengthy interviews with several Title 1
parents (low-income schools) and then converted those to
affidavits detailing the barriers parents face trying to
become involved in their child's schooling. These affidavits
were presented to the Guilford County School Board as part of an
on-going effort to enforce the Title 1 federal guarantee that
parents will have a meaningful, two-way relationship with the school
to improve the success of all such at-risk students. Because
of her skills working with clients, Adrienne also played the key
role developing the relationship with a parent of a special
education child being denied the Free Appropriate Public Education
promised by IDEA. Fortunately, Adrienne will be able to
continue working with us this Fall Semester as part of the
Externship Program at NCCU School of Law.
[Article submitted by Lewis Pitts, Senior Managing Attorney,
LANC-Advocates for Children's Services.]
LANC-Ahoskie Office - Family Law Case & Unemployment Hearing
William Krueger, Jr. (law student, UNC School of
Law) was our MLK intern here in the LANC-Ahoskie Office.
William worked with our family law attorney on an emergency custody
order for a great-grandparent. The great-grandmother came to
LANC when her grand daughter (drug addict and prostitute) tried to
take her great-grandchild from her. William drafted the
emergency custody order and went with the attorney to argue the
complaint. The judge required extensive research to be done while
there at the courthouse, before signing the order, and William was a
big help in researching as well as convincing the judge of the
urgency and need for the order. He worked late several nights
and left one morning at 6 AM to take papers back to meet with the
judge before court. An emergency custody order was granted,
restricting the parents from having contact or visitation with the
child. ON ANOTHER MATTER, William also was well prepared for
an unemployment hearing, which he was going to represent the client,
but right up to the date and time of the hearing, it had to be
continued by the appeals ref. I had reviewed his prep for the
hearing and was pleased with the research and effort he put forth. I
also saw how he handled and responded to the client.
[Article submitted by Lynda Whitehead-Taylor, Managing Attorney,
LANC-Ahoskie Office.]
LANC-Battered Immigrant Project - Self-Petition approved
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) summer intern, Ruth
Checkletts (law student at Brigham Young), prepared a
Motion
to Reopen a Deportation Order and also prepared a compelling
argument for US Citizenship and Immigration Services to approve a
client’s self-petition. Due to her letter and response to
USCIS, the client’s self-petition was approved.
[Article submitted by Rona Karacaova, Project Coordinator,
Battered Immigrants Project (LANC-Charlotte
Office).]
LANC-Boone Office - Medicaid hearing and domestic cases
A difficult Medicaid case was handled ably by Beth
Trivette (law student, UNC School of Law), our MLK (Martin
Luther King, Jr.) summer intern here in the LANC-Boone Office.
Beth's client was a Medicaid claimant who was young
(48) and working part-time. These were significant hurdles to
overcome in and of themselves when attempting to establish
disability. Additionally, the client had lost a previous
disability claim and had not been able to afford specialists to
attend to many of his complaints. His neurological complaints
and back problems were significant, but also presented difficult
proof problems as regards the Medicaid tests for disability.
Yet Beth prevailed, causing staff attorney Tate Davis to rave: "I
commend Beth on her performance yesterday in the Medicaid hearing .
. . . a very challenging case.... Beth rose to the challenge
and adjusted her direct exam even though the Hearing Officer had
posed several initial questions that threw our plan out the window.
Way to adjust, adapt and overcome, Beth!" Beth was also
instrumental in assisting in several domestic trials,
from witness interviews to preparation of subponae and exhibits.
She enjoyed the many and varied cases that came across our
threshold, and was a whiz at research! She deftly and ably handled
many clients and witnesses, and was a zealous advocate in our
mission. We miss her and want her back.
[Article submitted by Denise Lockett, Managing Attorney,
LANC-Boone Office.]
LANC-Fayetteville Office - Domestic Violence matter
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) summer intern, Betty
Hunt-Sanchez (law student, UNC School of Law), represented
a client in a DV (domestic violence) hearing. The client was married
to a Fort Bragg soldier. She was able to obtain the following
relief for the client: dvpo, possession of the home, car; abuser
will continue to pay mortgage payments; abuser will pay insurance on
vehicle, abuser will sell his car for no less than $5,000 and
purchase client another car; client will continue to drive abuser's
truck and he will continue to make payments on it until he gets her
another car; client is entitled to his BAH; abuser will pay all
property taxes; abuser will attend an anger management class.
This is more than most attorneys obtain for their clients in
domestic violence court in Cumberland County.
[Article submitted by Ida Baker, Managing Attorney,
LANC-Fayetteville Office.]
LANC-Morganton Office - LL/Tenant, Medicaid Appeal, UIB
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr. summer intern), Heather
Seals (law student at
Valparaiso), did an
excellent job for us this summer in the LANC-Morganton Office.
Heather's advocacy experiences included representing a
tenant in an eviction
from a Section 8 project-based apartment complex in Small Claims
court, which is currently on appeal to District Court. She
also handled a state
Medicaid appeal hearing in which she developed an argument
with very little supporting medical evidence. Finally, Heather
successfully represented a
UIB claimant at his Appeals Referee hearing. The client, a
truck driver, had been discharged by his employer for allegedly
using profanity in the workplace (Yes, that's right -- a trucker
fired for cussin' on the loading dock. Imagine that!). After
the hearing, the Appeals Referee called us to compliment Heather on
her excellent preparation and presentation of the case.
[Article submitted by Andrew Cogdell, Senior Managing Attorney,
LANC-Morganton
Office and Practice Group Manager of LANC Housing
Practice Group.]
LANC-New Bern Office - Benefits matter and a LL/Tenant matter
Our MLK intern Rob McRight (law student at
Vanderbilt University) did a great job with intake and represented
our clients in two Medicaid matters and unemployment matter, as well
as a landlord tenant matter. In the unemployment case
Rob represented a woman who had been a case worker at a nursing
home. Her client's employer had fired the client alleging she had
mismanaged the funds of one of the patients. Rob convinced the
hearing officer that these allegations were unsubstantiated.
The hearing officer found no substantial fault and awarded our
client the full 26 weeks of benefits. In the housing
matter Rob represented a client at informal hearing that
Washington (NC) housing held after receiving numerous complaints of
disruptive behavior and unauthorized lodgers. Rob explained
that these calls were all anonymous. These complaints not so
coincidentally came shortly after our client had her children's
father removed from the lease and had an DVPO taken out against him.
As for the overnight guests, our client was a single mother with two
small children. Her ex was stalking her and she felt she
needed some protection. Rob had had a lot of contact with the
housing personnel prior to the hearing, and they were receptive to
his explanations. Even without making the VAWA argument (we
were saving that in the event it went to a SE hearing), the housing
authority withdrew their termination.
We were fortunate to have Rob with us this summer,
as he had previously worked in the LANC-Wilmington office last
summer.
[Article submitted by David Caddigan, Managing Attorney,
LANC-New
Bern Office.]
LANC-Pittsboro Office - DV, Superior Court case, Advance
Directives, Intake
Tashama Williams (rising 3L, NCCU School of Law)
was the Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) summer intern in the
LANC-Pittsboro office this summer. Tashama had the opportunity to
represent clients in District Court in
four domestic violence cases
this summer. In each case, under my supervision, Tashama
interviewed the client, prepared the client for hearing, prepared
the case for hearing (including court documents) and represented the
client in court. Also under supervision, Tashama successfully
negotiated with opposing parties and opposing counsel to obtain
domestic violence protection orders in all cases, including custody
provisions favorable to our client in one case. Two of the cases
were particularly challenging because the clients had diagnosed
mental health issues. In all cases, however, Tashama displayed
great patience with the clients while at the same time being able to
explain the legal issues to the clients and navigate the clients
through the court process. In a
Superior Court case,
Tashama had the opportunity to work with me on preparation for
trial. The case initially came to our office as a benefits matter
and morphed into a contracts dispute when our 103 year old client,
along with other relatives, was sued by an assisted living facility
where she formerly resided. Tashama worked on the pre-trial order,
witness interviews, evidence collection, review of DSS records, as
well as conducted research on title issues, which were key to our
client's defense. She also showed great skill in being able to
communicate with our fragile client to obtain information in a
manner that was comforting and nonthreatening to the client. The
case has not gone to trial yet because a continuance was granted in
the matter. However Tashama's involvement has been
instrumental in helping our office develop strategies for our
client's defenses. Tashama also
prepared wills and advanced
directiveS for two clients. In those cases, she interviewed
the clients, drafted the documents and participated in the execution
of the documents under the supervision of a licensed attorney.
Tashama had intake
responsibilities several days during the summer. As the
advocate with intake responsibilities, Tashama, under my
supervision, conducted initial case assessments, follow up client
interviews and reviewed documents submitted by applicants referred
by the CIU Unit ,and shared the assessment with staff attorneys at
the weekly case acceptance meetings. Tashama was a very valuable
member of the Pittsboro office team this summer. We will miss her.
[Article submitted by Maccene Brown, Managing Attorney,
LANC-Pittsboro Office.]
LANC-Wilson Office - Unemployment benefits hearings
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) summer intern, George
Marsh (law student, NC Central School of Law) conducted two
unemployment benefits hearings this summer. IN ONE CASE, our
client was fired for absenteeism. The client did not have a car and
relied upon a family friend to drive him to work. That friend's car
broke down, leaving the client without transportation. The
client was unable to get to work and was fired after failing to
report for three days. George had the client testify as to all his
efforts (unsuccessful) to get to work. The client even walked
the 6+ miles to work on two occasions, but knee and back pain made
that option impractical. The appeals referee found that the loss of
transportation was beyond our client's control and held the client
not disqualified to receive unemployment benefits. IN THE
OTHER CASS, our client was fired for violating the attendance
policy. The Employer had a no fault, points-based attendance
policy, in which client accumulated points for every absence or
tardy. Our client had a great number of illness-related absences
plus a few personal days and tardies. The appeals referee
concluded that absences due to illness should not have been counted
under the policy. After removing the points associated with
those absences, our client did not have enough remaining points to
violate the policy. Our client was held not disqualified to
receive unemployment benefits.
LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Consumer Matter (Car repossession)
Our MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) summer intern,
Keith Clayton (law student, Campbell University
School of Law) had the opportunity to see both the legal and the
non-legal sides of a consumer matter when he worked on a car
repossession case. Our client's car had been repossessed with a lot
of her personal belongings inside, and the dealer wrongfully refused
to return her belongings unless she paid them some money. Keith
diligently spoke with the client on numerous occasions to get an
accurate inventory of the belongings that had been in the vehicle.
He also shadowed the attorney as she obtained first a TRO and then a
Preliminary Injunction against the car dealer. Keith then
accompanied the attorney to the car dealership for the retrieval of
our client's belongings and went through all of the belongings with
the client to make sure that everything was accounted for. He also
represented a client in an unemployment compensation case where the
former employer was challenging the client's right to the
unemployment benefits and alleging falsification of documents. Keith
did the direct examination, cross exam, and closing argument, and
did an excellent job with great results for the client.
[Article submitted by Lisa Baron, Managing Attorney, HEEC Unit,
LANC-New
Bern Office.]
2008 Martin Luther King,
Jr. Summer Interns
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