Volunteer
Legal Aid of North Carolina has volunteer opportunities for lawyers, law students, paralegals and others who want to donate their time and talents to serve North Carolinians in need. Keep reading to learn more about our different programs.
Check out our Volunteer spotlight!
Our Programs
Lawyer on the Line
Lawyer on the Line is a partnership of the North Carolina Bar Foundation and Legal Aid of North Carolina. It gives private attorneys an easy and rewarding way to provide basic legal advice and service to Legal Aid clients. Lawyer on the Line volunteers serve thousands of clients every year who have nowhere else to turn.
Facts about Lawyer on the Line
-
Volunteers provide one-hour telephone interviews with Legal Aid clients in need. Calls are made from the comfort of the volunteer's office.
-
Volunteers choose the number of referrals they receive (up to four per month) and the types of cases that will be referred to them.
-
Clients are pre-screened for eligibility and need brief advice in one of the following areas of law: bankruptcy, consumer, child custody, employment, criminal record expunction, foreclosure, government benefits, government housing, landlord/tenant and unemployment.
-
Training opportunities, malpractice insurance and mentoring support services are available.
Volunteer Lawyers Program
Our Volunteer Lawyer Program is a statewide pro bono program for volunteers who want to provide extended representation and litigation services to Legal Aid clients. Volunteers receive training for CLE credit, mentoring support throughout the duration of a case, and malpractice insurance. You choose how often to take cases. We need your help in these areas of law: consumer, domestic violence, education, expunctions, guardianship terminations and removals, immigration, private landlord-tenant and veterans benefits. You can make a real difference in someone's life! Necesitamos abogados que hablen español.
Self-Help Clinic Volunteer Program
We host live, monthly self-help legal clinics in communities throughout the state. At the clinics, participants receive a packet of legal forms and watch an instructional video. Following the video, volunteer attorneys answer general legal questions from participants. No legal advice is given at the clinics. Clinic topics include child custody and visitation, expunction, simple divorce, health care powers of attorney and living wills, and tenant rights. Learn more about self-help clinics.
Legal on the Line - Paralegal Partnership
| LINKS |
|---|
Legal on the Line - Paralegal Partnership is a partnership between the North Carolina Bar Association Paralegal Division and Legal Aid of North Carolina. It offers an opportunity for certified paralegals and Meredith College paralegal students to volunteer to serve Legal Aid clients under the supervision of licensed attorneys. Since paralegals perform the bulk of the work and are the point of contact for the client, attorneys are able to serve even more clients than they would working on a case alone.
-
Paralegals will be assigned one case at a time, but attorneys can supervise up to 10 advice cases at one time.
-
Volunteers will be contacted by Legal Aid for volunteer orientation before receiving their first referral.
-
Paralegal time commitment per case is 3-6 hours, and 2-4 hours for attorneys, over a period of approximately 2 weeks.
-
Legal Aid will refer advice cases to a Paralegal Team Leader, who will then distribute cases to paralegals on their team, and Legal Aid will pair with a supervising attorney.
-
Paralegals will communicate with their attorney supervisors prior to contacting the client, after speaking with the client, prior to beginning research, and after research in order to acquire attorney-approved advice.
-
Cases referred will be in the practice fields of consumer issues, expunction, education, government benefits, bankruptcy, and landlord-tenant issues.
-
Training opportunities, malpractice insurance and mentoring support services are available from Legal Aid for all volunteers.
Other Volunteer Opportunities
We have other volunteer opportunities for lawyers, paralegals, law students and others who want to donate their time and talents to serve North Carolinians in need. Fill out our sign-up form and we will follow up with you.
Volunteer spotlight
Rochelle Bellamy Mayfield
Hedrick Gardner Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP
Charlotte
Our client's identity was stolen and a fraudulent credit card account was opened in her name. She could not convince the credit card company that she was a victim of identity theft, so they sued her when she refused to pay the charges on the account. Facing an upcoming court date, our client called us for help. Legal Aid volunteer Rochelle Bellamy Mayfield took the case and contacted the company's lawyers on behalf of the client. Thanks to Rochelle, the credit card company accepted the fraud claim and dismissed the lawsuit. When Rochelle contacted her client with the good news, her client responded, "You have made my day, my week, heck my entire year!" Learn more about Rochelle.