Pro Bono Spotlight: Amanda Clark
Amanda Clark
When Hurricane Helene swept through Western North Carolina just days after her bar admission, newly licensed attorney Amanda Clark found herself called to serve her community in a way few imagine so early in their careers.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law in May 2024, Amanda began her legal career as a personal injury associate with Fisher Stark, P.A. in Asheville. She passed the July 2024 bar exam and was sworn in on September 23, 2024. Merely three days later, Hurricane Helene struck. Nearly the entire city went dark. Her new firm, one of the few buildings still with power, suddenly became a refuge, and Amanda quickly turned her first weeks as a lawyer into an act of community service.
In the days following the storm, Amanda checked on friends, neighbors, and co-workers while contending with her own challenges: two weeks without power or internet, and nearly two months without water. Seeking ways to help, she relocated temporarily to her parents’ home in Charlotte. There, she began studying FEMA resources and disaster assistance protocols, compiling notes she hoped might help others once she returned to Asheville.
When she came back, Amanda found her firm ready to mobilize. The partners at Fisher Stark, P.A., alongside community partners including Pisgah Legal Services, Davis Law Group, Patton Allen Real Estate and Black Balsam Wealth Advisors, teamed up to establish a pop-up legal triage center for displaced residents. Being the newest attorney at the firm, Amanda was asked to take the lead in coordinating the effort, to which she immediately said yes.
Without reliable internet or phone service, Amanda and her colleagues turned to local radio as their primary method of communication. “The radio became a lifeline,” Amanda recalls. “It was how people found out where to go for help, and how we found our volunteers.” Within days of putting out a call for assistance, more than 100 volunteers responded. Amanda organized and trained them in small groups of 20, sharing her self-taught knowledge of FEMA processes and applications.
Together, they transformed the firm’s downstairs offices into a bustling resource hub. Volunteers guided residents through FEMA grant applications and appeals, connected them to FEMA representatives, or simply offered a place to rest and recharge. “It became more than a legal clinic — it became a space of community connection and hope,” Amanda said.
The work wasn’t without challenges. Amanda recalls moments that stretched their knowledge and resources, from navigating FEMA’s household grant rules for multi-tenant homes to using translation tools to assist a Russian-speaking family. “There were so many questions that weren’t in my PowerPoint,” she laughed, “but we figured them out together.”
For Amanda, the experience solidified her belief that lawyering is fundamentally about community and compassion. In the most trying of starts to her legal career, she exemplified what pro bono service means for North Carolina’s next generation of attorneys — stepping forward when others are in need.