2023 Legal Feeding Frenzy Award Winners Announced

Fritts, a white man with brown hair and a beard, wears a white shirt, blue tie and navy jacket.

Spencer Fritts

Meredith, a white woman with blond hair, wears a black blouse with small white dots and a black jacket.

Meredith Brewer

By Spencer Fritts and Meredith Brewer

The winners of the 2023 North Carolina Legal Feeding Frenzy were recognized on Monday, May 1, by Attorney General Josh Stein.

The Legal Feeding Frenzy is an annual collaborative effort of the North Carolina Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, the North Carolina Foundation Endowment, Feeding the Carolinas, and the North Carolina Attorney General.

Meredith Brewer and Spencer Fritts, co-chairs of the YLD Legal Feeding Frenzy Committee, along with Mike Darrow, Executive Director of Feeding the Carolinas, participated in the remote award ceremony.

This year’s Legal Feeding Frenzy raised $161,086.16, which equates to approximately 664,321 pounds of food! The winners are listed below:

2023 Legal Feeding Frenzy Award Winners

  • Attorney General’s Cup – The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin
  • Large Firm Division – Moore & Van Allen
  • Medium Firm Division – Morningstar Law Group
  • Small Firm Division – Baker Donelson
  • Solo Practitioner Division – Fisher Law
  • Corporate/In-House Division – Atrium Health
  • Public Interest/Government Division – Legal Aid of North Carolina
  • Law School Division – Wake Forest University School of Law

The Altruist Award, which recognizes a “volunteer, participant, and/or partner who has given selflessly and made a significant impact” on the event, was presented to Robin Ames.

Out of 39 years of legal practice, Robin Ames worked for Legal Aid of North Carolina for the past 33 years. She began working for Legal Aid in Charlotte in 1983. She then moved to the Greenville office where she worked for four years before transferring to the Legal Aid Office of Ahoskie in 1998.

Though Robin retired from Legal Aid on February 28, 2023, she spent her final days of work registering all North Carolina Legal Aid Offices for the annual Legal Feeding Frenzy, as she had done since the fundraiser’s inception. For nearly a decade, Robin has not only participated in the LFF by donating personal funds but also has encouraged and organized volunteers across all North Carolina Legal Aid offices to support the LFF in the fight against hunger.

Since retiring, Robin has passed the reins to S.J. Hightower and Hope Williams to continue Legal Aid’s support of the LFF. Robin is currently enjoying retirement with her husband of 30 years, Mark O’Neal, at their home on Hatteras Island.

/by