Pro Bono Awards Presented at Annual Meeting

The 2024 North Carolina Bar Association Pro Bono Awards were presented on Friday, June 21, at the NCBA Annual Meeting in Charlotte. The awards were presented during the Awards Dinner and Presidential Installation.

The recipients of this year’s Pro Bono Awards are:

  • Thorp Pro Bono Service Award – Kerry A. Friedman, Patla, Straus, Robinson & Moore, PA, Asheville
  • Law Firm Pro Bono Award – Robinson Bradshaw
  • Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Lawyer Award – Rona Karacaova, Legal Aid of North Carolina, Charlotte
  • The Filling the Justice Gap Award – Rachel Royal, Royal Touch Project Solutions, LLC, Wilmington
  • Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Service Award – Palmer E. (Tripp) Huffstetler III, Sosna & Huffstetler, Rocky Mount
  • Outstanding Paralegal Pro Bono Service Award – Andrea M. Blosser, Robinson Bradshaw, Charlotte
  • Law School Pro Bono Service Award – “Better Together” project of Duke University School of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law, and the University of North Carolina School of Law
  • Outstanding Collaborative/Group Pro Bono Service Award – NCBA SOGI LGBTQ+ Legal Clinics

Pro Bono Committee Co-chair Mary Irvine and DEI Subcommittee Co-chair Alison Ashe-Card presented the awards.

Recognition of each recipient by the presenters included the following remarks, which have been edited for publication. Additional coverage, including full descriptions of each award, has been provided by the Pro Bono Committee and is accessible on NCBarBlog.

“The Awards Subcommittee of the NCBA Pro Bono Committee has the privilege of reviewing NCBA Pro Bono Award nominations and selecting the annual honorees,” Irvine stated. “Every year, this is a rewarding experience – learning about the exceptional pro bono work happening across the state – but it is also a difficult task because so many individuals and organizations are doing amazing work.”

Mary Irvine presented the first four awards.

Thorp Pro Bono Service Award

Kerry, a white man with white hair and a mustache, wears a white shirt, purple tie, navy jacket and khaki pants.

Kerry A. Friedman

This 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.

Kerry Friedman is an Asheville native and UNC Law School graduate. He has been a lawyer with the Asheville law firm of Patla, Straus, Robinson & Moore, PA since 1980, concentrating his practice in business law.

Throughout his career of 40-plus years, Kerry has provided free civil legal aid in Western North Carolina through his volunteer work at Pisgah Legal Services, primarily in the areas of Consumer Law, Debtor’s Rights & Debt Relief and Landlord/Tenant Law. Since 2006, Kerry has taken on 575 pro bono matters referred from Pisgah Legal Services, which represents an incredible level of service.

Law Firm Pro Bono Award

Julian is a white man with grey hair wearing a grey suit, and Emma is a white woman with brown hair in a green blouse and black suit.

Julian Wright and Emma Perry accept Firm Pro Bono Award.

The Law Firm Pro Bono Award recognizes law firms for their commitment to pro bono service through:

  • 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 of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

The recipient of this year’s Law Firm Pro Bono Award is Robinson Bradshaw. Julian Wright and Emma Perry accepted the award on behalf of the firm, which received the very first NCBA Pro Bono Award in 1984.

Robinson Bradshaw provides pro bono services to individuals and organizations that assist underserved populations, including matters referred by Legal Aid of North Carolina, the N.C. Justice Center, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, Charlotte Legal Initiative to Mobilize Businesses (CLIMB), and the Council for Children’s Rights.

A team of Robinson Bradshaw attorneys recently represented the nonprofit Oak Meadows Community Association in an appeal from the N.C. Property Tax Commission to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Attorneys Emily Schultz and Curtis Strubinger led this representation with contributions from attorneys Emma Perry, Tim Misner, and Hunter Bruton. They spent countless hours prosecuting the appeal, providing distinguished service on behalf of Oak Meadows’ low-income residents.

Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Lawyer Award

Rona Karacaova is a woman with brown hair. She wears a black blouse with flowers and a black blazer.

Rona Karacaova

This award is presented annually 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. This year’s recipient of the Greenblatt Outstanding Legal Services Attorney Award is Rona Karacaova.

Rona is a UNC Law School graduate and the Managing Attorney of Legal Aid of North Carolina’s Immigrant Pathways for Victims program, which provides representation to immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.

Before joining LANC in 2002, Rona worked with Connecticut Legal Services and Legal Services of Southern Piedmont. Prior to attending law school, Rona worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara, Turkey, interviewing Iranian and Iraqi asylum seekers. She also worked as the assistant director of a Bosnian refugee camp on the Bulgarian border of Turkey.

Through her immigrant services work with Legal Aid of North Carolina, Rona assists hundreds of clients every year.

The Filling the Justice Gap Award

Rachel Royal, a white woman with blond hair wearing a black dress, stands between Jason and Patti.

Rachel Royal, center, accepts Filling the Justice Gap Award from Executive Director Jason Hensley and President Patti Ramseur.

This award is presented to an attorney, law firm, or organization making innovative strides with providing legal services to help close the access to justice gap in North Carolina. This year’s Filling the Justice Gap Award goes to Royal Touch Project Solutions, LLC.

Royal Touch Owner Rachel Royal, a paralegal whose personal challenges in navigating the legal system as a pro se litigant inspired her to forge a path in the legal field, accepted the award.

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Through Royal Touch Project Solutions, Rachel works with nonprofits to develop technological innovations and implement process improvements that enhance service delivery for those unable to afford legal help. She served as the NCBA Paralegal Division’s Pro Bono Co-Chair for five years, during which time she helped develop and launch a custody clinic, a pro bono-focused immigration CLE, and multiple blog posts about the importance of pro bono work and access to justice.

Rachel was an active volunteer during the 2018-19 Hurricane Florence efforts with Disaster Legal Services and the Pro Bono Resource Center’s FEMA appeals clinics. In January 2021, she began contracting with the PBRC to coordinate its Driver’s License Restoration Project, and also coordinated the Housing Stability Project in partnership with the North Carolina Bar Foundation in 2021 and 2022. Rachel was instrumental in creating the technical framework for the Wake County Legal Support Center launch in 2023.

Alison Ashe-Card presented the next four Pro Bono Awards.

Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Service Award

Tripp, a white man with brown hair, wears a white shirt, red and navy striped tie, and navy suit.

Palmer E. Tripp Huffstetler III

This award is presented annually 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 Service Awards is Palmer E. (Tripp) Huffstetler III. Tripp is the managing partner of Sosna & Huffstetler Law Offices PLLC, headquartered in Rocky Mount. He began practicing law in 2014 and has dedicated his practice to consumer bankruptcy.

So far just this year, Tripp has filed three pro bono Chapter 7 cases with a personal goal to file at least six pro bono Chapter 7 cases per year. Tripp regularly provides pro bono consultation to individuals needing guidance for resolving debt concerns. He views his pro bono work as one of the most rewarding aspects of his practice, having filed 17 pro bono Chapter 7 cases since taking over as his firm’s managing partner in 2018.

In 2023 Tripp was recognized for his pro bono service by the NCBA Bankruptcy Section, which awarded him the Outstanding Achievement in Pro Bono Award.

Outstanding Paralegal Pro Bono Service Award

Andrea, a white woman with brown hair, wears a pink blouse and grey jacket.

Andrea M. Blosser

This award is presented to an NCBA Paralegal Division member who has volunteered a substantial amount of pro bono legal service to increase access to justice on behalf of persons of limited means and/or charitable groups or organizations.

This year’s Outstanding Paralegal Pro Bono Award goes to Andrea Blosser. Andrea is a litigation paralegal with the law firm Robinson Bradshaw.

In 2023, Andrea began serving as a council member for the North Carolina Bar Association’s Paralegal Division. Since 2011, Andrea has also served on the board of directors for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, focusing on mental health awareness and suicide prevention for young adults.

During the past year, Andrea’s pro bono work at Robinson Bradshaw has included representing a federal prisoner in a First Amendment challenge and assisting a former nursing home employee in a jury trial for racial harassment. In 2023, Andrea contributed 270 hours of time to her firm’s pro bono practice.

Andrea also has contributed time to the Pro Bono Resource Center’s Driver’s License Restoration Project and Charlotte Expunction Clinic; the North Carolina Bar Foundation’s Wills for Heroes Clinic; and Special Immigrant Juvenile Status cases in the 26th Judicial District.

Law School Pro Bono Service Award

Meghan Moran is a woman with brown hair wearing a white blouse and black suit, Lakethia Jefferies is a Black woman with black hair wearing a red blouse and black skirt, and D.J. Dore is a white man wearing a white shirt and black suit.

From left, Meghan Moran, Lakethia Jefferies and D.J. Dore accept Law School Pro Bono Service Award.

The NCBA presents this award annually to an outstanding law student pro bono project. The recipient of the 2024 Law School Pro Bono Service Award is the “Better Together” pro bono project, which was launched in 2022 through a partnership among Duke University School of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law, and the University of North Carolina School of Law.

DJ Dore, Director of Pro Bono at Duke University School of Law; Lakethia Jefferies, Director of the Pro Bono Legal Clinic at North Carolina Central University School of Law; and Meghan Moran, Director of Pro Bono Initiatives from UNC School of Law, accepted the award.

The “Better Together” project engages law students to provide criminal-record expunctions to Durham residents. Expunction is a critically important service in Durham, where thousands of residents have criminal records. Such records create roadblocks to securing and maintaining safe and affordable housing, and stable and sustaining employment.

While those with means can afford to hire private attorneys, low-income residents with criminal records – who, because of systemic racism, are disproportionately Black and Hispanic – must rely on the help of public-interest organizations to secure a clean slate.

Outstanding Collaborative or Group Pro Bono Service Award

Collins Saint, a person with brown hair and a mustache, wears a white shirt, blue tie and black suit.

Collins Saint, center, accepts Outstanding Collaborative or Group Pro Bono Service Award from Executive Director Jason Hensley and President Patti Ramseur.

This award is presented to a group of law firms or attorneys, or a local, district, 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.

The recipient of the 2024 Outstanding Collaborative or Group Pro Bono Service Award is the NCBA Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee’s LGBTQ+ Legal Clinics. Collins Saint, SOGI Pro Bono and Public Service co-chair, accepted the award on behalf of the group.

These clinics, specifically Name Change Clinics, were created with the goal of supporting transgender North Carolinians in drafting the required documents and filings for seeking a legal name change to affirm their gender.

Name changes for transgender individuals are a vital part to living fully authentic lives. Often, individuals in this community do not have the financial resources to afford an attorney or they may live in a “legal desert” where there are not affirming attorneys available.

Prior to this project, SOGI Pro Bono and Public Service Co-chairs Katie Jenifer and Collins Saint were actively involved in helping law schools with these clinics and sought to streamline and standardize these important clinics under the umbrella of the NCBA SOGI Committee.

The SOGI LGBTQ+ Clinics were approved by the NCBA Pro Bono Committee in March 2023. Since that time, SOGI has held nine clinics in collaboration with Equality NC, Elon Law, Wake Forest Law, the NCBA Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law Section, and LGBTQ+ Centers in several counties.

SOGI Name Change clinics have served over 100 clients and engaged over 90 attorney, law student, and paralegal volunteers, and the SOGI Committee continues to work on ways to expand pro bono opportunities to support members of the LGTBQ+ community.

Russell Rawlings is director of external affairs and communications for the North Carolina Bar Association.