By Kaitlyn Fudge “Without our guidance, many of these clients would be sitting in a deportation center awaiting a one-way ticket back to a country where they might be met with threats and violence.”
When you hear “corporate finance lawyer,” you think about boardrooms in high-rises and long hours poring over documents packed with legalese about acquisitions and lending practices. You picture the type of guys on Wall Street. What you don’t picture is someone at the U.S.-Mexico Border visiting an immigration respite center in McAllen, Texas, where summers are sweltering and an average August day is 97°F.
Meet Joey Polonsky. Joey is a corporate finance senior associate at King & Spalding LLP in Charlotte. His firm has partnered with the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, which provides asylum-seeking immigrants in crisis access to basic resources, legal services, and medical assistance. He attributes the opportunity to his firm, “Helping your clients achieve what is right and just is an uphill battle, and I wouldn’t be able to make the difference I have without my colleagues who have always pushed me to advocate for the people who need it most.”
As humans, we are multi-dimensional beings made up of several identities, including race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ability. Cultures are inextricably connected to these identities and are learned from what we see, read, hear and experience. We carry them with us wherever we go and, collectively, they make up who we are at any particular point in our lives. They may influence our decisions, impact our lived experiences, play a role in how we choose to engage with others, and provide the lens through which we see the world. Acknowledging this truth is a good starting point when engaging in equity and inclusion work.
As chair of the Pro Bono Committee’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion subcommittee, I am pleased to announce the launch of a multi-part blog series surrounding DEI issues in legal work. Each entry will provide a high-level view of a resource relevant to a particular topic, which we encourage you to review as a follow up. While many of the topics may relate to sects of the population that are served by pro bono projects, historically under-supported communities, the information presented is not exclusive to pro bono work and should be applied as you engage with any client.
Pro Bono Projects: NC LEAP, Wills for Heroes, Lawyer on the Line
By Allison Constance Even though Alexa Whiteside has not lived in North Carolina long, she has already made her mark as a pro bono volunteer. Alexa moved to Davidson from Los Angeles in April 2019 and works for Ramo Law PC as a motion picture and television attorney. In just a year and a half as a North Carolinian, she has served clients through NC LEAP, Wills for Heroes, and Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Lawyer on the Line program, and she encourages others to take on pro bono work alongside her.
Alexa is currently working to get more sports and entertainment law attorneys involved in NC LEAP because the work is rewarding and very applicable to what they are already doing. Alexa often finds links between pro bono projects and her practice in unexpected ways. As a motion picture and television attorney, Alexa represents producers in all areas of the law, including general business affairs and contract negotiations.
The winners of the North Carolina Bar Association’s 2020 Pro Bono Awards have been selected. The recipients were chosen by members of the NCBA Pro Bono Committee, chaired by Emily Moseley and Jennifer Mencarini.
Congratulations to each recipient and their nominators, who provided the background and biographical information included below for each honoree.
https://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.png00Russell Rawlingshttps://ncbarblogprod.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blog-Header-1-1030x530.pngRussell Rawlings2020-06-24 14:27:372020-08-05 12:24:462020 Pro Bono Awards Announced
As we all process the ongoing events related to the Covid-19 pandemic, one source of comfort is knowing that helpers, like first responders, healthcare workers, and so many others, are doing the impactful work they’ve always done – saving lives.
Lately, their works seems particularly meaningful and dangerous, but they have been heroes since long before this pandemic.
Another one of the helpers out there is Yazmeen Gadalla. Gadalla, a corporate paralegal at Smith Anderson, has volunteered to help first responders at multiple Wills for Heroes events, and the NCBA Pro Bono Committee is very grateful for her work.
Wills for Heroes is a North Carolina Bar Foundation program that provides essential legal documents like wills, living wills, and powers of attorney to North Carolina first responders free of charge. Gadalla is a North Carolina Certified Paralegal and a Notary Public and helps notarize documents – many of which require not only a Notary, but multiple witnesses – to ensure the first responders receive valid estate planning documents. NCBA Pro Bono Committee member Rachel Royal says that Gadalla has even gone out of her way to volunteer at Wills for Heroes events that are out of town and required her to travel.
By Rachel Royal
Perspective. That is what Michael Martinez, Bankruptcy and Corporate Attorney at Grier Wright Martinez, P.A., gleans from his pro bono work. He shares, “It really helps the effectiveness of my tact and approach dealing with my corporate clients when I’m simultaneously working with a pro bono client trying to save a house or put food on the table.” Although he has worked at the same firm since graduating from law school in 2009, Michael has volunteered for a wide variety of pro bono causes.
One of the most meaningful projects was one that he essentially pioneered in 2012 when he assisted terminal cancer patients at a local rehabilitative and palliative care clinic with end-of-life-planning. This project was particularly important because most of the patients were immigrants or underprivileged and unable to otherwise afford the legal assistance needed to prepare their families for the aftermath of their deaths. Many of these patients would leave behind minor children who would subsequently be orphaned which magnified the significance of this work.
It’s fair to say that Jennifer Bennington is passionate about pro bono! As a partner of the Wilson firm of Beaman & Bennington, PLLC, Jennifer focuses her practice on bankruptcy (representing debtors, creditors, and the trustee), non-bankruptcy work-outs, as well as representing Wilson County DSS in juvenile abuse, neglect, and dependency cases, as well as child support cases.
Despite the demands of a thriving practice, Jennifer consistently carves time out of her calendar for pro bono projects. It’s fair to say that when it comes making pro bono a top priority, Jennifer is a frequent flyer!
Jennifer uses her expertise in bankruptcy matters to assist those with limited means. She has donated countless hours to LANC’s Lawyer on the Line program, fielding questions from consumers considering bankruptcy. Jennifer genuinely relishes the opportunity to educate and reassure clients. She has found that bankruptcy is often not the best option for these clients. Many worry that someone is going to come along and take what few things they do have. One client in particular was worried about going to jail for not paying her bills. Educating people on what the law allows creditors to do in collecting debts goes a long way in easing people’s minds, as the unknown is often scarier than reality.
When we asked Dan Gibson about the pro bono appeal he’s been successfully handling, one of the first things he did was give credit to others – his mentors, his colleagues, and his client.
Gibson’s humility is admirable. But it’s evident that Gibson’s passion for helping others and for appellate law took his advocacy to the next level. The case, Routten v. Routten, is a domestic law matter with heart-breaking facts; Gibson’s client is a mother who was denied custody and visitation rights with respect to her two children following trial.
Gibson had agreed to accept court appointments through the North Carolina Appellate Pro Bono Program and took the case in the summer of 2018.
By Rachel Royal Steve Epstein considers it not only his duty as a lawyer, but his privilege, to provide pro bono service. “If not for me, who will do this work?” he questions. Since April 2010, Steve has spent his days as a Civil Litigation attorney at Poyner Spruill, LLP with a focus in Family Law.
By contrast, his pro bono work is where he steps out of his everyday comfort zone to delve into landlord tenant issues and customer disputes with car dealerships. He does this through Lawyer on the Line, a partnership between the NC Bar Foundation and Legal Aid of North Carolina.
Steve has been volunteering for Lawyer on the Line since its inception as the formerly known “Call 4All.” He handles approximately half a dozen calls per year, but he often assists the client well beyond the initial call, which has included writing demand letters, problem resolution, and even filing suit on the client’s behalf.
By Allison Standard Constance NCBA member Kevin Pratt understands that pro bono work is an opportunity to demystify the legal process for clients and pave a way to communication that can resolve clients’ issues. Pratt works on consumer cases with Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Lawyer on the Line program, and he also volunteers on landlord-tenant cases with Legal Aid of North Carolina-Charlotte.
In his pro bono work, he finds that information gaps exist between clients and their corporate adversaries, and with representation, the free flow of information allows the parties to better understand the dispute and resolve it amicably.
Recently, Pratt represented an elderly, disabled husband and father who was being sued by a creditor attempting to renew a previously obtained judgment. The client is a cancer survivor, and now has significant health problems resulting from an adverse reaction to chemotherapy.
By Kaitlyn Fudge
By 
By Allison Constance
As we all process the ongoing events related to the Covid-19 pandemic, one source of comfort is knowing that helpers, like first responders, healthcare workers, and so many others, are doing the impactful work they’ve always done – saving lives.
By Rachel Royal
By Dawn LaRue
By Caroline Trautman
By Rachel Royal
By Allison Standard Constance