Intern Litigation
Summer 2010
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 2010 summer interns scored for
our clients:
LANC-Ahoskie Office - Family Law
Lucas
Beal, MLK intern for the
LANC-Ahoskie Office and a law student at the
Elon
University School of Law, had his first hearing before
the Clerk of Court in Northampton County on June 22 (within first
three weeks of internship). Beal presented a Petition for a
Delayed Birth Certificate by client's Affidavit, and was granted an
Order for a Birth Certificate signed by the Clerk. The client
is a 74-year-old woman who was born in North Carolina and now lives
in Pennsylvania. Because she had had no birth certificate, the
client had previously been unable to obtain a valid ID and,
therefore, had not been able to get bus, plane or train tickets by
herself. Beal has also assisted a 58-year-old client who was
facing foreclose on her mother's home through a Medicaid Estate
Recovery Claim. Beal wrote the N.C. Division of Medical
Assistance-Third Party Recovery Section and advised them that our
client was a surviving adult child who was disabled and lived in the
home. Through his research of estate recovery and U.S.C.
1396(b)(2) he requested that they waive and/or dismiss the pending
Medicaid estate recovery claim. On July 12 Beal received
confirmation that Medicaid was going to clear the claim
against the home. Later in July, Lucas filed a Small Claims
action against a landlord who refused for 6 months to return
client's $500 security deposit. Using N.C.G.S. Sections 42-52 and
55, he demanded a full refund for the landlord's willful failure to
refund, plus attorney's fees. Landlord hired an attorney who tried
to scare him off, but Lucas persisted with "I'll see you in court."
The client contacted him today to say she has received all of her
deposit from the landlord. This was a significant victory for
us because we have had three (3) previous clients who have contacted
us over this landlord failing to return security deposits. Beal has been supervised by Lynda Whitehead-Taylor
(managing attorney, LANC-Ahoskie Office) and assisted by Faye Lewis
(paralegal, LANC-Ahoskie Office).
[Article submitted by Lynda Whitehead-Taylor, managing attorney,
LANC-Ahoskie Office.]
LANC-Battered Immigrant Project -
Charlotte Office
Congratulations
to Catherine Laffety! Catherine, a MLK intern
in the
BIP-Charlotte Office and a law student at the
UNC School of Law,
successfully obtained a domestic violence protective order
last week for one of our domestic violence
clients. Catherine was well prepared and truly understood the
needs of our client. The client in this case was particularly
anxious and Catherine was able to ease this client's concerns with
confidence and compassion. Catherine has predominantly been
working in the
Battered Immigrant Project (BIP) preparing petitions for U-Visa
applicants and petitions for adjustment of status for U-Visa
holders. Great job Catherine!
[Article submitted by Faith Fickling, staff attorney,
LANC-Charlotte Office.]
LANC-Boone Office - Domestic Violence
Ronald
Payne, MLK from the
LANC-Boone Office and a law student at the
Wake Forest University
School of Law, helped a graduate student obtain a
Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) against a former
boyfriend. Under the supervision of LANC staff attorney (V. Tate
Davis), he conducted the client interviews, prepared examinations of
both the opposing party and the client and discussed the general
process potential outcomes with the client. "To be able to
help a 'fellow' graduate student was rewarding," noted Payne, "and
reminded my why I am going to law school -- to help people
understand, navigate and find relief in our complicated justice
system." In addition to the DVPO matter, Payne has helped
interview clients, taken photos for evidence, drafted documents for
trial and assisted with trial preparations, including evidence and
strategy discussions.
LANC-Charlotte Office - Domestic Violence
Congratulations to Andrew Perry,
MLK summer law clerk in the
LANC-Charlotte Office and law student from the
Charlotte
School of Law. Andrew successfully represented a domestic
violence (DV) client in a trial today against opposing counsel
(under the supervision of LANC attorney Faith Fickling).
Andrew not only obtained the domestic violence protective order
(DVPO), but he also got custody of the minor child for our client.
Even before the trial, Andrew displayed excellent work in serving an
out of state defendant, obtaining evidence and preparing for trial.
Great job Andrew!
[Article submitted by Faith Fickling, staff attorney,
LANC-Charlotte Office.]
LANC-Concord Office - Domestic Violence/Unemployment
Ashleigh Beamer is law student at
Duke University
School of Law and was a summer intern for the
LANC-Concord Office. Ashleigh worked on a variety of
cases, and she was a valuable asset to our team. Ashleigh was
particularly interested in domestic violence work, and she was a
great help to our office by interviewing and giving advice to
domestic violence victims. Ashleigh was eager to observe
domestic violence court in both Union and Cabarrus
Counties, and, in doing so, she learned a great deal about these
types of cases. Ashleigh also participated in interviews and
case acceptance meetings for several unemployment benefits
clients. Ashleigh was assigned a tricky unemployment case, in
which she represented the client at an ESC hearing in Charlotte. She
was successful in getting a substantial fault determination in what
could very easily have been a misconduct case. Ashleigh put
much time and effort into preparing her second unemployment case,
but that client's case got continued at the request of the employer
and has yet to be heard. During the latter part of her
internship, Ashleigh was assigned several education enrollment
cases, in which she did a great job interviewing clients and
completing enrollment affidavits. Ashleigh was co-supervised
by LANC staff attorneys Patti Tutone and Brien Hub.
[Article submitted by Patti Tutone, staff attorney,
LANC-Concord Office.]
LANC-Concord Office - Public Benefits
Victoria Grimes is a law student at
NC Central
University School of Law and was the MLK summer intern for
the
LANC-Concord Office. Victoria worked tirelessly to
assist our clients and was an asset to our team. She began her
internship by observing interviews, doing research assignments and
investigative work, observing court and writing client letters.
She quickly moved on to conducting her own interviews, and
ultimately representing clients at their hearings. Victoria
won her first ESC hearing, getting a reversal of the adjudicator's
misconduct determination. In her representation of clients
this summer, Victoria learned the valuable skill of adapting when
clients changed their stories at the last minute, and she showed
tremendous grace under pressure. During her time at our office,
Victoria also successfully defended a housing client in Small Claims
court, in a case that likely would have led to the client's eviction
without Victoria's help. The client was extremely appreciative
of all that Victoria did for her. Victoria was supervised by
managing attorney Judy Newbold. Her dedication and hard work
have been much appreciated, by both the entire LANC-Concord staff,
and by our clients.
[Article submitted by Patti Tutone, staff attorney,
LANC-Concord Office.]
LANC-Durham Office - Family Law
Melanie
Bates is the MLK summer intern for the
LANC-Durham Office and is a rising 3L at the
NC Central
University School of Law. As a rising 3L, she obtained
certification under The North Carolina State Bar Third-Year Practice
Rule, which allows law students to provide representation to
indigent clients under the supervision of a licensed attorney,
including giving legal advice to the client and appearing in court.
In her first case, she assisted a client in securing a DVPO.
Melanie has also prepared a
DVPO process
Power Point presentation, which will be used in the LANC
domestic violence (DV) clinics. Additionally, she has
opportunities to attend court, observe depositions, write letters,
draft a notice of hearing, prepare mediation papers,
interrogatories, motions, complaints, answers, do client intake and
conduct research. She
has worked closely with a seasoned legal aid staff
attorney, Dietrich McMillan, on various areas of family law.
LANC - Gastonia Office - Housing Law
The
LANC-Gastonia Office's MLK Fellow, Jessica Brilhante
(law student at the
Charlotte
School of Law), has been hard at work this summer
ensuring justice for the tenants of Gaston County. She has represented
tenants in two separate summary ejectment hearings before the
magistrate and in each case succeeded in having the
landlord's complaint dismissed. In addition, in one of these
cases, Jessica's advocacy persuaded the magistrate to give the
landlord a stern, extensive warning about lock-outs where that
landlord had turned off the tenant's electricity. That, in
turn, lead to a very favorable settlement which required the
landlord to turn the power back on his name. Jessica has also
provided invaluable support to our office in connection with
mortgage foreclosure, DV and exemptions matters. We are very
grateful for her work here this summer and hope she will continue to
be a part of the LANC family in the future. Great work Jessica!
[Article submitted by Sharon Dove, managing attorney,
LANC-Gastonia Office.]
LANC-Greensboro Office - Domestic Violence
Tiffany
Dyson Atkins was the MLK summer intern for the
LANC-Greensboro Office and a rising 3L from
Elon
University School of Law. Tiffany
successfully juggled two 50Bs on her last day at the
LANC-Greensboro office. Tiffany was able to negotiate an order
for one client, giving her all the protection she requested,
including custody of the parties' children. In addition,
Tiffany represented a client in a contested hearing, where the
defendant was represented by counsel. This client had been the
victim of years of abuse, and had sought prior protection of the
courts through both civil and criminal remedies. Tiffany won
the hearing, again getting our client everything she had requested.
Our office and clients have benefited greatly from her presence, and
we know she has a promising future ahead of her!
[Article submitted by Jennifer Wilson, staff attorney in the
LANC-Greensboro Office.]
LANC-Morganton office - Public Benefits
Jennifer Wideman, MLK summer intern in the
LANC-Morganton Office and a law student at the
University of
Iowa College of Law, engaged in a wide range of advocacy this
summer. Jennifer represented clients in three unemployment insurance
benefits administrative hearings, two Medicaid disability hearings,
and one Small Claims Court case this summer. She successfully
defended a client being sued by his former employer in magistrate's
court for the return of $1,000 in an overpaid bonus. The
client had been advised he was due the entire bonus when he received
and spent the funds, but the employer later decided that the amount
of the bonus had been miscalculated. Jennifer also won
unemployment benefits for two clients at administrative hearings in
which she argued both substantive and procedural issues. In
two of Jennifer's cases in which the clients did not win their
benefits at the administrative hearings, our staff determined that
good issues for appeal existed, and Jennifer helped to draft appeal
briefs to the NC Employment Security Commission in an unemployment
case and to the Chief Hearing Officer in a Medicaid case.
Jennifer researched an interlocutory appeal issue for a subsidized
housing case. Her research memo was so good that our staff attorneys
asked her to convert it into a brief to the NC Court of Appeals.
The brief was so well written that they submitted it to the Court
with only minimal revisions. Jennifer also met with 21 elderly
clients at our summer will clinics held at senior centers and
outreach sites throughout our five-county service area. She
prepared 46 documents for these clients (17 wills, nine POAs, ten
HCPOAs, and ten living wills). Back at the office, she
assisted clients in numerous advice and brief service cases in the
areas of housing, consumer, employment and public benefits. Examples
of her work include helping a client complete exemption forms, and
helping a client obtain title to a mobile home from the
landlord/seller.
LANC-New Bern Office - Domestic Violence; Housing Law
Dan
Rose is the MLK summer intern for the
LANC-New Bern Office and is a rising 3L at the
UNC School of Law.
This summer he has successfully represented four (4) domestic
violence victims in Beaufort County. He met and did the intake
on his first DV client the second day he was here. In one
particular case, where the facts were not entirely favorable to our
client, Dan was successful in negotiating a very positive outcome.
Dan has also represented two ( 2) clients facing summary ejectment.
One of our client's had June rent accepted by the landlord the day
after they had filed for summary ejectment. Dan made the
Winder v. Martin argument. When the
magistrate announced he was dismissing the matter, the landlord
asked that it be without prejudice, which was granted. The
landlord then left Small Claims Court, went right to the clerk of
court's office and filed another summary ejectment, based on the
same facts. So on July 6th, he defended our client and had the
case dismissed again, this time with prejudice. In the other
summary ejectment matter, our client was living with her boyfriend
and was charged with having an unauthorized person living in her
unit. Further complicating the matter, the police saw the
boyfriend making a drug buy from a dealer thy had been watching.
When he was stopped, he was found with marijuana on his person.
The officers wanted to use this guy as a confidential informant, so
he was not arrested. Dan did a great job cross examining the
police officer and discredited the officer's testimony.
[Article submitted by David Caddigan, managing attorney,
LANC-New Bern Office.]
LANC-New Bern Office - Medicaid; Unemployment
Patrick
Hunter is a rising 2L at the
UNC School of Law
and is working at our office as a volunteer summer intern through
the UNC pro bono program. Patrick has represented two (2) clients at
Medicaid hearings. He also represented
another client at an ESC hearing. This was in
addition to him preparing wills and advanced directives for some of
our senior clients. Patrick has also been helping our staff
attorneys with a non-profit group from Oriental.
[Article submitted by David Caddigan, managing attorney,
LANC-New Bern Office.]
LANC-Wilmington Office - Public Benefits
Becky DeCoster successfully represented a client at
a Medicaid hearing. Becky is the MLK summer
intern for the
LANC-Wilmington Office
and is a rising 3L at the
New England School of Law. Becky has
been predominantly working in the benefits section assisting clients
with Social Security overpayment matters and Medicaid and
Medicare appeals. Great job Becky!
[Article submitted by Shelly Bao, staff attorney,
LANC-Wilmington Office.]
LANC-Winston-Salem Office - Summer Law Clerks
The
2010 summer law clerks provided their reflections of their work
experiences in a special edition of the
LANC-Winston-Salem Office's
"LANC News" newsletter, August 2010.
In photo (l-r) Benjamin Synder (Elon University
School of Law); Brittany Speas (Wake Forest University School of Law);
Daniel Joyce (Elon University School of Law);
Whitney Butcher (Elon University School of Law);
Chelsea Leathers (University of South Carolina School of
Law); Bo Caudill (Charlotte School
of Law); and Lauren Tozzi (Wake Forest University
School of Law).
[Click
here
to view the August 2010 edition of
"LANC-News" LANC-Winston-Salem Office (Special Edition,
Reflections of 2010 Summer Law Interns).]
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