2011 Outstanding Pro Bono Service Awards
Local attorneys have been nominated for annual awards sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) to recognize volunteer attorneys who provide exemplary pro bono service to low-income people. The nominees will be recognized at a meeting of the 28th Judicial District (Buncombe County) Bar on Wednesday, April 11th at 12:30 at the Venue in downtown Asheville.
NEWS RELEASE
Pisgah Legal Services
Date: April 6, 2011
Media Contacts: James A. Barrett, Executive Director, 828.210-3408 or 828.779.5202 (cell), jim@pisgahlegal.org or Katie Russell Miller, Communications Mgr., 828.777.2275 or katierm@pisgahlegal.org
Local Attorneys Honored
For Helping Low-Income People in Crisis
Local attorneys have been nominated for annual awards sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA) to recognize volunteer attorneys who provide exemplary pro bono service to low-income people. The nominees will be recognized at a meeting of the 28th Judicial District (Buncombe County) Bar on Wednesday, April 13th at 12:30 at the Venue in downtown Asheville.
Pisgah Legal Services (PLS) and the 28th Judicial District Bar co-sponsored the nominations of attorneys Matthew Roberson with Adams, Hendon, Carson, Crow, and Saenger, P.A. and Eleanor Powers (retired) for the NCBA’s 2011 William L. Thorp Pro Bono Service Award and Starling B. Underwood with McGuire, Wood and Bissette, P.A. for the Younger Lawyer Pro Bono Service Award. The local firm Chitwood & Fairbairn, P.A in Asheville has been nominated for the 2011 Outstanding Smaller Law Firm Pro Bono Service Award.
These attorneys are being recognized for their volunteer service through the Mountain Area Volunteer Lawyers (MAVL) Program, which is administered by Pisgah Legal Services. Through MAVL 300 private attorneys provide free civil legal help to low-income people to help them meet their most basic needs, including housing, health care, income, safety from domestic violence, and consumer protection. MAVL includes attorneys from Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, Polk, Rutherford, and Transylvania Counties.
Pisgah Legal Services is a nonprofit, community-based law firm providing free, civil legal services to low-income people in Western North Carolina. MAVL attorneys work with PLS to help people in crisis solve legal problems to secure urgent necessities. In 2010, PLS staff attorneys and MAVL volunteers helped more than 10,800 low-income people. MAVL attorneys closed 905 legal cases to help more than 1,600 adults and children.
In 2010 MAVL attorneys donated 3,528 hours of service, which is modestly valued at more than $529,200. MAVL stands out across the state as a model volunteer attorney program. Local attorneys, both as individuals and as firms, have been recognized numerous times at the state level for their tremendous volunteer commitment.
Highlights of the contributions of award nominees include:
- Eleanor Powers: Eleanor, a retired attorney who practiced in Estate Planning, relocated to Asheville in 2008. She has discovered a second career in volunteering at PLS. In 2010, Eleanor advocated for a client whose husband had been missing for eight years. The client needed to establish that her husband was deceased in order to clear the title to her house and collect other assets. Eleanor was successful in getting the court to declare the missing man dead, and helped the client with the paperwork she needed to receive benefits to which she was entitled.
§ Matthew Roberson: In 2010, Matthew volunteered 110 hours through the MAVL program to serve PLS clients. Matthew saved clients a total $3,583 in two separate debt reduction cases. In addition to saving clients money, he protected clients’ lives by representing victims of domestic violence in obtaining protective orders and establishing a plan of custody.
§ Starling B. Underwood: Since joining the MAVL pro bono panel less than two years ago, Starling has spent over 154 hours volunteering to serve PLS clients. Last year Starling closed a case in which a tenant was living in substandard housing and threatened with eviction. He stopped the eviction and negotiated a rent abatement settlement, saving the low-income tenant approximately $2000.
§ Chitwood & Fairbairn, P.A. serves injured and disabled Western North Carolina clients. The founders, Susan Chitwood-Barton and Holly Fairbairn, dedicate their practice to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid cases and Veterans’ disability claims. This firm’s dedication to the MAVL program is evidenced by their combined total contribution of more than 825 hours to serve PLS clients.
