The Pisgah Legal Services Partnership
Providing pro bono service to the poor has been a responsibility and distinction of the legal profession since its beginnings. While attorneys historically provided pro bono service individually, for the last 30 years, pro bono service has evolved in Western North Carolina from an ad hoc group of volunteer attorneys into a unique “pro bono partnership” with Pisgah Legal Services. In 2007, this partnership enabled Pisgah Legal Services and local attorneys participating in the MAVL Program to assist over 9,000 low-income residents and their dependents with legal problems affecting basic needs in over 3,000 closed cases.
The MAVL/PLS partnership enables volunteer attorneys to represent pre-screened low-income individuals with legal problems affecting their basic needs. Attorneys are assured that Pisgah Legal Services’ clients have pressing, substantial legal problems that affect their ability to obtain safe and stable housing, escape domestic violence, prevent consumer abuse and fraud, and access necessary medical care, among others.
The history of Pisgah Legal Services and the MAVL Program demonstrates the steadfast commitment of local attorneys to the mission of helping low-income clients with their basic needs. More than forty years ago, in 1967, the Legal Aid Society of Buncombe County was formed and, during the seventies, was administered successively by Buncombe County attorneys Karl Straus, Barry Kempson and William Wolcott, III. Karl Straus formalized a referral system to distribute indigent cases to private attorneys who represent them pro bono. A study by the Legal Services Corporation concluded that clients served by the Buncombe County bar during this period received "high quality, efficient services."
In 1980, Legal Services of North Carolina signed a contract with the Legal Aid Service of the Buncombe County Bar Association to expand civil legal services in Henderson, Madison, Polk, Rutherford and Transylvania counties and, in 1981, the Legal Aid Service changes its name to Pisgah Legal Services.
Then, twenty-five years ago in 1983, representatives of the bars of the 6 counties came together to form MAVL in conjunction with the NCBA initiative that year to set up organized pro bono programs statewide in conjunction with their local legal aid program. Since that time, MAVL attorneys have handled more than 10,000 pro bono cases, contributing in excess of 30,000 volunteer hours.
