Juvenile Court Needs You

By Jimbo Perry, Annick Lenoir-Peek and Jeff Miller

As the Chair of the NCBA Professionalism Committee, who is also a small town practitioner in Kinston, and Executive Director of the Chief Justice Commission on Professionalism, I recently had the opportunity to interview Annick Lenoir-Peek, North Carolina Parent Defender, and Jeff Miller, Pitt County attorney, whose practice is limited to court-appointed trial and appellate representation of indigent parents in juvenile court matters.

Annick and Jeff reflect on what our  “call” is as attorneys. The Preamble to our Rules of Professional Conduct of the North Carolina State Bar sets forth our responsibilities to be zealous but honorable advocates, officers of the court and public citizens who provide legal services to improve society. Annick and Jeff have committed their lives to help preserve families in very difficult circumstances by providing excellent representation. Their work impacts their clients and the generations that will follow.

I hope all who read this blog post will be inspired to follow Annick’s and Jeff’s examples. There is a need for more attorneys to do this work in every district in North Carolina. This practice area is a legal desert that has no geographic bounds.

Annick Lenoir-Peek

What is your current position?

Parent defender, appointed by the Indigent Defense Commission, since July 1, 2025.

What has been your career path?

I started out as a parent attorney in South Carolina, where we would be “voluntold” to represent parents in child welfare proceedings. I was lucky enough to get involved in a few appeals while in South Carolina. When I moved to North Carolina, I knew that I wanted to continue to represent parents in addition to having a traditional family law practice. In 2002, I became the Department of Social Services attorney in Onslow County, where I remained for two years before becoming the Trial Court Administrator for the then Fourth Judicial District.

In 2008, I relocated to Durham, North Carolina, and joined what was then the Office of the Parent Representation Coordinator. Over the past 25 years, I’ve specialized in appeals — arguing before the North Carolina Court of Appeals and Supreme Court on behalf of parents whose rights were at risk of being permanently severed from their children. When the Office of the Parent Defender was created in 2018, I became the Deputy Parent Defender. During my tenure, I have focused not only on representing parents in appeals but in training, mentoring and creating tools to assist parent attorneys throughout the state.

Why is Parent Defense important?

This work is about more than courtrooms; it’s about giving voice and dignity to parents who are often misunderstood, underserved and under-resourced. Every parent deserves to be seen, heard and believed in.

The public too often sees our clients through the lens of sensational headlines. But most of the parents I represent are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. They don’t need judgment. They need help. We’ve forgotten how traumatic it is to remove a child. People think removal is always safer. But I’ve seen the harm firsthand — even if they do get to eventually come back home, the kids are never the same. Parent attorneys help to restore dignity to our clients and advocate for families. You help children by strengthening their families and connections to their families.

What is the current status of there being enough Parent Defender Attorneys across our state?

There are simply not enough attorneys to address the huge need we have for parent attorneys across the state. While the situation is extremely perilous in rural counties, where there are fewer attorneys to begin with, the lack of attorneys even permeates the largest counties in the state.

What are short- and long-term solutions as to how these needs can be met?

Short-term solutions include things such as structuring a calendar in a way that attorneys are not stuck in this courtroom all day; providing more training so that attorneys who practice in other courtrooms feel more comfortable and confident in this arena; scheduling sessions in such a way that attorneys who also appear in another county or court can maneuver between the two; encouraging more internships (attorneys tend to come back to a court they know).

Long-term solutions involve encouraging additional law schools to create family defense clinics, like the one at UNC; providing more parent-team social workers; increasing indigent rates across the board; supporting more nonprofit organizations and firms to do this work.

While federal loan forgiveness is tempting, the programs I’ve looked at all require an attorney to be providing at least 30 hours per week of indigent services. This may not be realistic in smaller counties.

Share with our audience why they should consider becoming a Parent Defense Attorney.

When I say I represent parents in child welfare cases, people assume the worst. They picture addicts passed out in cars, abusive parents. But I can count on one hand the number of truly dangerous parents I’ve represented in almost 30 years. The vast majority are people doing the best they can with the resources they have.

This courtroom is an emotional roller coaster. We meet our clients at one of the worst moments of their lives — either their child has been taken or they have been threatened with removal. But there is nothing more satisfying than helping your client get their child back and regaining dignity for the family.

Jeff Miller

What is your current position?

I received my 50-year pin from the State Bar in 1975, so I guess I’m currently in that awkward stage of life as a lawyer privileged to still be on this side of the dirt, trying to be of service in some meaningful way for my community and our State. In 2020, I “retired” from a full-time private practice concentrating in family law. Since then, I have devoted all of my professional efforts to court-appointed trial and appellate representation of indigent parents in juvenile court matters.

Why have you chosen to devote the remainder of your work life to representing indigent parents in juvenile court?

I graduated from law school in 1975, when Gideon v. Wainwright and Argersinger v. Hamlin were at the forefront of change in assuring poor people’s access to legal services by attorneys. I was privileged to have Bruce Rogow as a law professor. He exemplified a passion and commitment to the law and judicial system as a vehicle for meaningful social change, for the assurance of fair and equal justice under the rule of law, and for leading a purposeful professional life in service to one’s community and those in need. Professor Rogow, who I’m told now lives in western North Carolina, was among the major influences for my professional career and current efforts.

For me, without question, our juvenile courts are the most important courts in North Carolina. More than 8,800 cases were filed in North Carolina’s juvenile courts between 19 May 2025 and 19 May 2026. In the first four and a half months of 2026, there were more than 3,350 filings. All of these cases involve children, parents, families, communities, social issues, constitutional issues and principles of law premised on varying ideas for the betterment of individual lives and society at large.

In more than a decade as an attorney for indigent parents appealing juvenile court decisions, I have read hundreds of transcripts from the juvenile courts, and I have talked with numerous appointed trial attorneys from around the State. In the course of that, I realized there were recurring issues and areas of concern, and I began to think more concretely about how to address them. I especially wanted to improve the work and lives of our parent defenders, as well as the relationships of all stakeholders in juvenile court, with a focus on preservation of families and their reunifications through the judicial process.

The overwhelming number of juvenile court cases involve indigent parents without resources or adequate support systems, many suffering from mental health and substance abuse issues, who need an experienced and passionate advocate. Unfortunately, the system is largely dependent upon the skill and participation of attorneys who will volunteer to be underpaid and overworked.

When I began work as a lawyer, I didn’t have a focused plan or “business model” for maximizing my income and profit as a lawyer. I just jumped in and did the work available, gradually developing a practice. The economy and freedom for such a choice was quite different back then.

The current rate of pay for court-appointed counsel is inadequate to support or attract private attorneys with office overhead expenses and hopes of making a decent living. As a consequence, the appointed lists have attracted attorneys for a variety of reasons, some of which have little to do with honing skills and competencies, or with passionate commitments to juvenile court practice and public service. I am amazed at the numbers of excellent, passionate attorneys who have remained on the juvenile court appointed lists. Still, we don’t have enough.

Finding ways to address the needs and goals of our juvenile court system; developing methods to attract, encourage and support competent and dedicated parent defenders; and, attempting to be a real-world participant in making a difference in the most important court in our State — I guess that’s the motivation and purpose of my remaining years as a North Carolina lawyer.

I have found my juvenile court work to be the most satisfying, challenging and fulfilling of my career. Unlike the typical family law case with adversarial parents combatively competing in service of their own individual goals, with zealous well-paid advocates advancing these individual interests, most juvenile proceedings begin with a mandated shared goal among all participants in providing services designed to solve problems and reunify families. I like that.

Overall, it has been a liberating and remarkable experience, professionally and personally, for me. I hope others will discover the same — new and enriched friendships, personal and professional growth and the use of unique professional skills to provide a public service having generational consequences for families, communities and our State.

As a lawyer, it is often difficult to find essential, soul-filling meaning in our work. Lawyer and forensic psychologist Dr. John Zervopoulos said it best: “The tendency to become jaded is real, especially when conflict is our main fare. But finding meaning is not a self-absorbed task. Its magic takes effect when the meaning we find in our work helps others uncover meaning in their own lives [and families.]”

Recently, Annick, Jimbo, and I visited Professor Beth Posner’s class at the University of North Carolina Law School. She was teaching and supervising eight law students in a parent defense clinic. Under her supervision, the students represented parents in Orange and Chatham County juvenile court adjudications and dispositions. Professor Posner wrote the following about her experience:

“Some of you may know that this year [2025-26] Carolina Law started a parent defense clinic. Eight students represented parents in Orange and Chatham Counties under my supervision, and among other things, they would all agree that it was the most profound experience of their law school career, exposing them to trauma, grief and fear that they had never imagined and to more injustices related to poverty, race and gender than they thought possible. One of my students said that she will never be the same again and that she cannot stop telling people about the grotesque imbalance of power she witnessed and the shocking comfort the legal system seems to have perpetuating trauma through prolonged separation.”

This year, for me, has been the most important of my 20+ years of teaching at Carolina and almost 30 practicing law. I am in awe of those of you who have been doing this work for long and am honored to be doing it myself now and to be bringing new lawyers into this world.”

You have had some creative ideas about attracting and supporting attorneys as parent defenders in the juvenile courts. Please share some of them, and your progress so far.

About 5 or 6 years ago, I had an overly-ambitious “grand plan” consisting of several integrated projects. I naively and arrogantly thought I could interest others in participating to get it all started, so over a period of two years, I pitched the plan to the NCBA Pro Bono coordinator, the NCBA family law section, the Office of the Parent Defender, Tim Heinle at the UNC School of Government, several law school professors and anyone else who would listen.

Essentially, I wanted to organize and formalize a parent-defender Bar in each county or judicial district; to establish parent defense or practical skills clinics/programs for law students in each of the law schools; to establish summer internships and law clerk opportunities with service commitments to include juvenile court practice; to coordinate with domestic relations law professors for experienced juvenile court lawyers to appear as regular speakers in their family law classes to discuss and promote juvenile court practice; to establish an outreach and recruitment of law students for juvenile court practice as a part of their professional career, with support from law firms and individual mentors; to recruit experienced trial lawyers, in conjunction with county District Court Judges,  for a specified limited practice as parent defenders in juvenile court; to recruit NCBA Senior section members and “retired” lawyers for a limited juvenile court practice; to recruit inactive lawyers under the special State Bar program allowing pro bono practice; to establish uniform standards and formal mentoring of new lawyers as a condition of qualification and eligibility to serve as parent’s counsel on county court-appointed lists; to develop low-cost and free CLE programs for parent defenders in their county of practice and to supplement the otherwise excellent programs offered by the School of Government and the Office of the Parent Defender; to establish a list of lawyers from neighboring judicial districts to assist county courts needing lawyer assistance in meeting case load or conflict issues; to find ways to encourage and support lawyers in opening offices in legal deserts with juvenile practice as part of their business model; to establish a relationship with Legal Aid offices for their staff attorneys to assist in juvenile court, especially with Responsible Individual List cases.

Yeah, way too “grand!” Others with more bureaucratic experience recognized the improbabilities. Someone in the Family Law section redirected me: “Simple is better . . . and is more likely to get attention.”  Taking that wise advice, I distilled the grand plan. I am now focused on establishing county parent defender Bar organizations while continuing to work with Jimbo and Annick in any manner I can be of service.

So, while I still talk about aspects of the grand plan, I think the county parent defender Bar organization provides the best foundation and optimal beginning point for implementing improvements in our juvenile court system. Each county and judicial district has its own unique court philosophy and culture. Organization and planning among the local stakeholders, with backup and support from the central Office of the Parent Defender, has the best chance for sustained improvement of parent defense workday in and day out in North Carolina’s juvenile courts, in my opinion.

I have started with my own county. Our Pitt County Parent Defender Bar meets over the lunch break on the second Thursday of every month. We invite Department of Social Services (DSS) attorneys to meet with us on occasions to discuss common issues and concerns. We recently discussed issues with them concerning OPD’s suggestions about client releases for DSS. We have a local parent defender group email list that we use to communicate about our cases, court and other matters. We share professional literature about child welfare law and services. At our last meeting, we distributed practical literature and discussed experiences about nonsecure custody hearings. As a group, we now have an organized collective voice in our relationships with our DSS attorneys and juvenile court Judges. We were also able to schedule a for-credit CLE program presented by the Office of the Parent Defender in Pitt County during a lunch hour. In short, we have developed collaborative professional and personal relationships that make our work and our lives better. I encourage others to organize and do the same in their county of practice.

This is important work every lawyer interested in the courtroom for their professional service should consider. There are methods to make a juvenile court practice part of a meaningful and satisfying  professional career while still maintaining a traditional law practice. We need you!