NCBA Pro Bono Awards Presented at Annual Meeting
The 2023 North Carolina Bar Association Pro Bono Awards were presented on Friday, June 23, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Wilmington. Pro Bono Committee Co-chairs Katherine Asaro and Mary Irvine presented the awards during the Annual Meeting Luncheon and the Awards Dinner and Presidential Installation.
Review and selection of the honorees is conducted annually by the Pro Bono Committee’s Awards Subcommittee.
The following coverage includes background information on each award and recipient as provided by the presenters. And, although time does not permit for the honorees to respond during the ceremonies, many of the recipients did respond to a follow-up request for comments which are included in this article.
Law Firm Pro Bono Award
The Law Firm Pro Bono Award is presented to a law firm in recognition of its commitment to pro bono service through the contribution of pro bono hours, the percentage of billable hours devoted to pro bono work, the number and percentage of firm attorneys providing pro bono legal service, the firm’s creative approach to pro bono engagement, the consistency and sincerity of its pro bono program, and the presence of a law firm culture that is grounded in the observance of Rule 6.1 (Voluntary Pro Bono Publico Service) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
This year’s recipient of the Law Firm Pro Bono Award is Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP.
For more than a century, Parker Poe has represented many of the Southeast’s largest companies and local governments in transactions, regulatory issues, and complex litigation. The firm has more than 275 attorneys across eight offices in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
Parker Poe has a rich tradition of providing pro bono legal services. The firm’s pro bono work has included representing the interests of abused and neglected children in the Carolinas and Georgia, advising on the development of affordable housing for senior citizens, protecting the intellectual property rights of nonprofits, and providing legal assistance to refugees seeking asylum from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Nigeria, and other countries.
Parker Poe maintains an active Pro Bono Committee that spearheads and coordinates initiatives across all eight of the firm’s offices. The firm also partners with clients and legal services nonprofits on pro bono opportunities, working closely with them to identify needs in local communities.
Michael Crook displays Law Firm Pro Bono Award, joined by Executive Director Jason Hensley, left, and President Clayton Morgan.
Michael J. Crook accepted the award on behalf of Parker Poe.
“One reason we at Parker Poe are so proud to have received the Law Firm Pro Bono Award is how it recognizes ‘the consistency and sincerity’ of our pro bono program,” Crook stated. “We have been intentional in building a program that brings together attorneys across our firm to make a difference, including in partnership with clients and nonprofits in historically underserved communities.
“Our attorneys will also tell you our pro bono work makes a difference for each of us. Each matter is another opportunity to do meaningful work and build relationships in our communities.”
Law School Pro Bono Service Award
The Law School Pro Bono Service Award is presented to an outstanding law student group whose pro bono project advanced access to justice in North Carolina.
This year’s recipient of the Law School Pro Bono Service Award is the North Carolina Central University School of Law Elder Law Project.
The NCCU Law Elder Law Project (ELP) aims to specifically serve clients who are 60 years of age or older with legal needs. NCCU ELP recognized the access to justice barriers for older citizens who lack the resources for legal support and services. As a result, trained law students worked under the supervision of Pro Bono Director Lakethia Jefferies and alumnus William (Bill) Moore with assigned clients from Legal Aid of North Carolina to complete health care advance directives, durable power of attorney documents, and wills for low-income elderly citizens of Durham County.
Law students work on cases from start to finish, beginning with client intake, consultation, and the drafting of wills and other end of life documents. Most intake, consultation and document execution occur at the Durham Senior Center.
Lakethia Jefferies displays Law School Pro Bono Service Award, joined by Executive Director Jason Hensley, left, and President Clayton Morgan.
Lakethia Jefferies accepted the award on behalf of the NCCU Law Pro Bono Clinic.
“The Elder Law Project is an integral part of the NCCU Pro Bono Clinic and something students look forward to participating in each year,” Jefferies said. “While the pandemic brought these efforts to a pause, the enthusiasm and engagement from the students, and the hard work and innovation of the Clinic staff has breathed new life into the program with new ideas of expansion through legal technology and greater collaboration with Legal Aid.
“NCCU Law students and staff are committed to serving their community and honored to receive this award in recognition of their efforts in modeling the institution’s mission of ‘truth and service.’”
Outstanding Collaborative/Group Pro Bono Service Award
The Outstanding Collaborative/Group Pro Bono Service Award is presented to a group of law firms or a local, district, or statewide bar organization whose members have engaged in significant and notable legal services or have contributed outstanding support and assistance to the maintenance of pro bono legal services for low-income individuals. Honorees have demonstrated a commitment to pro bono service by engaging a group of attorneys in a cooperative pro bono effort that has deep impact on the lives of low-income North Carolinians.
The recipient of this year’s Outstanding Collaborative/Group Pro Bono Service Award is the Afghan Asylum Project of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein and Pisgah Legal Services.
The Afghan Asylum Project began in March 2022 when Pisgah Legal Services learned from local refugee resettlement agencies in Asheville that dozens of Afghan newcomers in the community had no legal help to navigate the complex asylum process and submit applications within one year of their arrival in the United States (August 2022 for most).
Twenty-two Western North Carolina attorneys and 11 Parker Poe attorneys signed on to help Pisgah Legal’s immigration team. Originally, volunteers were asked to commit 10 hours of their time to assist with asylum applications, but Pisgah staff and project volunteers quickly discovered that the cases would be much more complex than anticipated.
The project was led by Jacob Oakes (Pisgah Legal Services), Tiffany Burba (Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein), Rob Lamb (Hatchrockers Law), and Bill Hoffman (King & Spalding). Volunteers navigated challenges posed by significant language barriers, literacy issues, and fundamental cultural differences relating to the calendaring of dates and the marking of life’s milestones such as birthdates and marriage dates.
As volunteers worked with the clients, it became clear that the clients could not navigate the asylum interview process without legal representation. Pisgah Legal Services decided to help as many Afghan clients as possible and volunteer attorneys stepped up to help, with many of the volunteers who completed asylum applications agreeing to represent their client at their asylum interview.
Ultimately, volunteer attorneys represented 35 Afghan clients through their asylum application and interviews, contributing more than 1,700 hours of pro bono services.
Tiffany Burba displays Outstanding Collaborative/Group Pro Bono Service Award, joined by Executive Director Jason Hensley, left, and President Clayton Morgan.
Tiffany Burba accepted the award on behalf of the volunteer attorneys and Pisgah Legal Services.
“The primary goal of pro bono work is to help a client in need who wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain legal services or access to justice,” Burba stated. “At the same time, private practice attorneys can benefit from and develop skills through pro bono work. For example, attorneys can explore new practice areas, have more direct client contact, and network with other lawyers in the community when working on a collaborative project or clinic.
“Particularly for junior attorneys, pro bono work is a great way to build confidence and take ownership of a matter while receiving mentorship from a more senior, supervising attorney. Meanwhile, the clients are able to receive high-quality services from attorneys who have the support and resources of a large law firm to back the project. It’s a win-win for attorneys and clients alike.”
The Filling the Justice Gap Award
The Filling the Justice Gap Award is presented to an attorney, law firm, or organization making innovative strides with providing legal services to close the legal services gap in North Carolina. The legal services gap exists when clients of limited means do not qualify for free civil legal services/representation in matters affecting their basic needs by a legal services provider and cannot afford to retain an attorney.
The recipient of this year’s Filling the Justice Gap Award is the Charlotte Legal Initiative to Mobilize Businesses.
Minority-owned and women-owned small businesses in North Carolina often face daunting obstacles finding and affording competent legal counsel. To help fill this access-to-justice gap, Kimberly Zirkle of Moore & Van Allen and Kate Maynard of Robinson Bradshaw spearheaded the creation of the Charlotte Legal Initiative to Mobilize Businesses (CLIMB) in 2021 and McGuireWoods, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, joined shortly afterward.
Today, CLIMB has provided more than 900 hours of pro bono transactional legal services to low-income entrepreneurs and small businesses in the Charlotte area, with a focus on businesses whose ownership consists primarily of people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, or disabled persons.
The need for these services is great. Of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, Charlotte ranked last in economic mobility in a 2014 study led by a team from Harvard and the University of California-Berkeley. A new business can be a lifeline to upward mobility for women and minorities, but even those who wouldn’t usually qualify for pro bono services often struggle to afford even the most essential legal services for starting a business.
CLIMB’s leaders crafted an innovative design to ensure its services would reach communities with the greatest need. CLIMB accepts applications primarily through its relationships with a small number of referral partners who work with members of the communities CLIMB seeks to serve. It accepts clients with incomes up to 500% of the federal poverty level, whereas traditional pro bono providers often set their caps lower. This allows CLIMB to fill the gap and serve clients who can’t access traditional pro bono services.
Attorneys who volunteer for CLIMB – more than 100 from the participating firms – provide many of the same legal services they provide to large corporate clients, just on a smaller scale and to a community of entrepreneurs that would otherwise struggle to access counsel. To date, 98% of CLIMB’s clients have been people of color.
In its first year, CLIMB counseled a diverse group of more than 60 entrepreneurs on a range of legal questions typically facing small businesses, including business formation, corporate governance, tax implications, supplier and services contracts, and employee contracts.
Kate Maynard, left, and Kimberly Zirkle display the Filling the Justice Gap Award.
Zirkle and Maynard accepted the Filling the Justice Gap Award on behalf of CLIMB.
“The coolest thing about this award and this project,” Zirkle said, “is the collaboration amongst the law firms, and the fact that several firms here in Charlotte have joined forces to create this program in order to provide business services for diverse entrepreneurs who may otherwise not have had the opportunity to have some type of corporate counsel.”
The spirit of collaboration is nothing new to the Charlotte-area bar.
“I can’t speak to other locales,” Zirkle said, “but I know there’s a lot of cooperation and collaboration in Charlotte. We obviously work opposite each other frequently and work with the same clients, so we see a lot of each other in that way. But whenever the call to action goes out, we respond together, and I think that’s a really special thing.”
“For example, my firm received an email from a lawyer at James, McElroy and Diehl a couple of weeks back challenging us and probably every other large firm in Charlotte to conduct fundraisers at each of our firms to gather school supplies for local children in need. So, sometimes we do things in collaboration with each other, and sometimes we’re in competition with each other and we want to out-give each other!”
This award is also special, Zirkle concluded, because the entire point of CLIMB is to help fill the justice gap.
“There are a lot of pro bono projects out there that are more litigation focused to help provide representation for folks in court who wouldn’t otherwise have it,” Zirkle said. “And we need those types of projects. But when it comes to diverse entrepreneurs and small businesses owned by persons of color, there is still a justice gap, and if these big firms like Moore & Van Allen and Robinson Bradshaw can’t help fill it, then who will, and whose responsibility is it?”
“That’s why we created this project.”
Thorp Pro Bono Service Award
This Thorp Pro Bono Service Award is presented to an NCBA member attorney who has provided substantial and extended legal services with no expectation of receiving a fee, to a client or client group that could not otherwise afford legal counsel. The award was renamed in 2007 in recognition of William Thorp, who provided years of service to the low-income people of North Carolina as a founder of Legal Services of North Carolina, the predecessor organization to Legal Aid of North Carolina.
The recipient of this year’s Thorp Pro Bono Service Award is Erik Zimmerman of Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson PA.
Zimmerman is a shareholder in the Research Triangle office of Robinson Bradshaw. He represents clients in a broad range of commercial litigation matters, with a focus on appeals. He has argued in the Fourth Circuit and the North Carolina appellate courts, and has filed numerous briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and appellate courts nationwide.
Zimmerman often handles pro bono appeals. He has represented clients pro bono in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and the North Carolina appellate courts on a wide range of matters, from landlord-tenant disputes to high-stakes constitutional cases. As his nominator described, “Erik is one of the finest examples of an attorney who answers our profession’s call to use our skills for the greater good. He provides pro bono services humbly, creatively, and generously.” In eight years, Zimmerman has provided 2,462 hours of pro bono service – an average of more than 300 hours per year.
Zimmerman co-chairs Robinson Bradshaw’s Appeals Practice Group. He also serves on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee and Appellate Practice Section Council. He clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John G. Roberts Jr., and for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Zimmerman graduated from Stanford Law School and Harvard University. A Cary native, he now lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Danielle, and their two children, Abbie and Henry.
“I am deeply honored to receive the Thorp Pro Bono Award,” Zimmerman said. “The past recipients of this award are exceptional lawyers and public servants, and I’m so proud to be listed alongside them.
“I’d like to thank the NCBA’s Pro Bono Committee for its outstanding work in encouraging and facilitating pro bono service in our state. I’d also like to thank my colleagues at Robinson Bradshaw. I’m privileged to work with lawyers who place great value on pro bono service and who have been tremendous teammates in my pro bono cases over the years.
“I’m inspired to provide pro bono service because I’ve often found that the people who most need legal help are those who can least afford to pay for it. I also feel fortunate to have learned from many great lawyers in my career, and I find it rewarding to use what I’ve learned to help people who aren’t so fortunate.”
Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Award
The Greenblatt Award is presented to a legal services lawyer who has made exemplary contributions to the provision of legal assistance to help meet the needs of the poverty population in North Carolina. The award is named after Deborah Greenblatt who served as the executive director of Carolina Legal Assistance for more than two decades where she persevered as a champion for the rights of individuals and children with disabilities despite challenging political and judicial setbacks.
The recipient of this year’s Greenblatt Award is Carlene McNulty, Director of Litigation at the North Carolina Justice Center.
Carlene McNulty joined the Justice Center’s predecessor organization, the N.C. Legal Services Resource Center, in February 1996, and has helped lead the Center’s ambitious impact litigation efforts ever since. Initially designed to provide legal assistance to low-income individuals that were statutorily barred from receiving assistance from federally funded legal aid organizations, the Justice Center’s litigation unit has grown into a formidable independent force against poverty and injustice.
McNulty’s nominators described her as a great leader, a patient mentor, possessor of an encyclopedic knowledge of North Carolina consumer protection law, and a passionate advocate, persevering despite setbacks and staying calm in moments of crisis.
A specialist in consumer law, McNulty has helped co-counsel numerous important class actions against powerful, predatory lenders. Her work on a broad range of issues has had tremendous impact on low-income individuals in North Carolina, resulting in improved access to dental care for Medicaid-eligible children, fair assessment of social security disability claims, payment of wages to vulnerable workers who were not being paid overtime or were having illegal deductions made from their wages, and putting an end to harmful predatory lending practices.
In addition to managing a large caseload that includes class action and impact litigation, McNulty also provides back-up support for the work of legal aid advocates and pro bono attorneys. Prior to joining the Center, she worked at North State Legal Services in Hillsborough, where she won the Julian Pierce Award as North Carolina’s outstanding legal services advocate.
Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Service Award
The Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Service Award is presented by the NCBA Young Lawyers Division to a YLD member who has demonstrated a significant commitment to pro bono service by providing exemplary legal services that increased access to justice on behalf of persons of limited means and/or charitable groups or organizations.
This year’s recipient of the Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Award is Troy Shelton, a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP.
Shelton is an appellate partner in the Raleigh office of Fox Rothschild LLP. A board-certified appellate specialist, Shelton is dedicated to helping clients – including those who are indigent – pursue appeals in federal and state courts across the country. Over the years, Shelton has represented on a pro bono basis many children who were abused and neglected by their parents, individuals facing foreclosure, and victim’s rights organizations.
In a 2021 pro bono case, Shelton persuaded the North Carolina Supreme Court to unanimously recognize that children have a constitutional right to a learning environment free from abuse and bullying. In this case, Shelton worked to assemble a team – and as one of his colleagues described, his appellate handiwork and dedication to the case opened the door to ensuring children have a safe learning environment.
In 2018, he partnered with the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center to launch the first pro bono program for the state’s appellate courts. Shelton was described by one of his nominators as instrumental to starting the appellate pro bono program which would not exist without his work. Shelton is also assisting the state’s appellate courts in creating forms and guidance documents for people representing themselves on appeal.
Beyond the courtroom, Troy Shelton is a monthly columnist for North Carlina Lawyers Weekly, where he writes about topics of general interest to the state’s legal community. He has held various leadership positions with the Appellate Practice Section of the North Carolina Bar Association. He was also appointed to the Appellate Rules Committee, which helps the Supreme Court of North Carolina revise and promulgate rules governing appeals.
“I consider this award to be an important recognition not just for myself, but for the state’s Appellate Pro Bono Program,” Shelton said. “I helped launch that program in 2018 and administered it until last year. The program provides an important service for indigent clients, as well as the bench and bar.
“The program delivers quality briefing on difficult legal issues for the appellate courts, and helps attorneys (young ones, especially) get appellate and oral argument experience. When paired with the Guardian ad Litem appellate program, I consider our state to be a leader in delivering pro bono appellate services.”
Outstanding Paralegal Pro Bono Service Award
The Outstanding Paralegal Pro Bono Service Award is presented to an outstanding NCBA Paralegal Division member who has volunteered a substantial amount of time in pro bono legal service to increase access to justice on behalf of persons of limited means and/or charitable groups or organizations.
S.M. Kernodle-Hodges (Rick Crank Photography)
The recipient of this year’s Outstanding Paralegal Service Award is S.M. Kernodle-Hodges of Tolliver, Richardson & Kernodle LLC.
Kernodle-Hodges is a Legal Project Manager for Tolliver, Richardson & Kernodle, LLC in Raleigh. The firm specializes in the areas of project management, compliance, regulatory reform, advocacy, mediation, law enforcement dialogue facilitation, and community engagement. Currently, she is the Program Coordinator and Clerk for Wake County’s Legal Support Center. Before that time, she worked for 10 years as a Criminal Justice Official. She holds an Associate of Science Degree in Administrative Justice from Patrick Henry Community College and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice and Sociology from Averett University. She also graduated from Duke University’s Law Studies Paralegal Program and obtained her (NCCP) North Carolina Certified Paralegal credential from the North Carolina State Bar.
Some of her noteworthy accomplishments include being a (NCCMC) North Carolina Certified Municipal Clerk, a FINRA Arbitrator, a Superior Court Mediator and Federal Court Mediator for Western District of North Carolina, (CA) Nationally Credentialed Advocate and a (VSP)Victim Services Practitioner.
Kernodle-Hodges has provided significant support and leadership to a number of pro bono efforts. According to her nominator, she has been instrumental in the Name Change and Gender Marker Clinic for Colleges and Community, specifically working to ensure that training and education of attorneys will promote cultural competency in the project’s work on behalf of LGBTQ+ individuals. Kernodle-Hodges has also been very involved in assisting with pro bono asylum clinics and with the Family Law Section’s Custody clinics in Wake and Guilford counties.
As a graduate of the University of South Florida’s DEI program, Kernodle-Hodges strives to create a more diverse workplace, address equity issues, and foster inclusivity. She is a dedicated North Carolina Guardian ad Litem (child advocate) for Wake County’s 10th Judicial District. She serves the legal community as Co-Chair for the Utilization Committee with the North Carolina Bar Association, as Co-Chair for the (SOGI) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identification Pro Bono Committee, and as Co-Chair for the Paralegal Division’s Pro Bono Committee with the North Carolina Bar Foundation, and as a Board Director for the Pauli Murray LGBTQ+ Bar of North Carolina. She is a Board Member of the North Carolina State Bar Board of Paralegal Certification.
Kernodle-Hodges is also the Co-Founder of the (NCJFAP) Justice for All Project in North Carolina. Mrs. Kernodle-Hodges was appointed to the North Carolina State Bar’s Subcommittee Studying Regulatory Change. The subcommittee was created to study regulatory reform and present recommendations and initiatives the State Bar should pursue, including ideas such as creating a limited license for paraprofessionals, initiating a court navigators’ program, and liberalizing the rules on the (UPL) unauthorized practice of law.
“I am truly humbled and honored to have been selected as the recipient of the Outstanding Pro Bono Paralegal Award,” Kernodle-Hodges said. “This recognition holds immense significance to me as both a personal triumph and a testament to the essential role of pro bono service within the legal community.
“I started volunteering 80% of my time after I became aware of the challenges arrestees, detainees, juveniles, and those who were being sentenced in our courts or processed out through our magistrate’s office daily struggled to understand the legal system. This also included the select few who were being represented by legal counsel. Many who were illiterate or struggled with some form of learning disability suffered the most because they were unable to comprehend or process what was happening to them.
“In thousands of cases over the years, during intake/processing, I would be asked questions that verified the individual did not understand what a final ruling meant. In one case I was asked, ‘Can I go home and make arrangements for my children? There is no one to get them off the bus.’ The individual didn’t understand that once the judge gave his ruling, they would not be released again until their time had been served.
“In another case, I was asked, ‘Will I be able to get my check out of the mail today and pay my bills so I will have a place to live when I get out?’ In another case, the entire family had become incarcerated within a 45-day period of time. First the father for drugs, the mother and son for shoplifting together, and daughter had been incarcerated the month before after being sentenced for a physical altercation she had been in the year before. They lost everything.
“However, the event that changed my life was the 2004 release of a 67-year-old man who was before the magistrate. She reviews six pages of information with him. After each page, she asked him if he understood. His response after each page was ‘yes.’ He would occasionally look over the documents while she detailed the terms and conditions of his release. When she was done, she said, ‘the Deputy will release you after you sign in the appropriate spaces.’ He then looked at the magistrate and said, ‘Ma’am I cannot read or write, but I can make my mark if she tells me where.’
“In that moment, I couldn’t breathe. The magistrate and I both looked at it other for a moment before she said to him, ‘That will be fine,’ but it wasn’t, and I haven’t been the same since that day. All he understood was that he wanted to go home and that making his mark on these sheets of paper meant that he could leave.
“That moment grounded me. It changed how I interacted with people professionally. It enhanced my compassion. I modified my approach in my everyday interactions because on that day in 2004, I learned something about myself. I took for granted then what many take for granted every day: the ability to read and write, and the ability to advocate for oneself.
“I firmly believe that all legal professionals should serve as a legal ‘wellspring’ for those in need of legal services or support. Witnessing the struggles of those in low-income and economically marginalized (LIEM) communities who lack legal representation continues to drive my passion for pro bono work. Pro bono service, to me, extends beyond a mere duty; it represents a profound sense of social responsibility. The legal profession serves as a gatekeeper, ensuring that justice is not limited to the privileged few but is a fundamental right that should be accessible to all, regardless of their financial circumstances.
“Through pro bono advocacy, support, and resources, hope can be restored, rights protected, and silenced voices empowered. I have chosen to be the voice, when needed, of those who cannot speak for themselves, and this award reinforces the importance of that choice.”
Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.