Opportunities for Volunteer Lawyers

Pisgah Legal provides training (including free CLEs), mentoring, and co-counseling opportunities. Yes, all pro bono casework is covered by Pisgah Legal Services’ malpractice. If you need additional information about our coverage, please contact Julia Horrocks.

All Pisgah Legal pro bono clients are screened for income level/assets and the nature of their legal matter. Most MAVL Program clients have incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level. Our average client income is between $11,000-$12,000/year.

There are several ways in which pro bono referrals are made, including:

• PLS staff may contact you by email or phone to ask if you are available to assist with a particular case. You may accept or decline the referral.
• You can sign up to do our housing or consumer advice line for a particular week. We send you the names of two or three clients to provide advice to by phone that week.
• You sign up to assist with legal clinics that we publicize through our pro bono network.

Our Pro Bono Team staff maintains regular communication with our volunteer attorneys on cases as needed. You can complete case closure forms here.

We make every effort to get accurate information from clients about their legal mater and their financial situation. If during the course of your work with a PLS client you get additional information that may indicate they are not eligible or otherwise may not be appropriate for pro bono assistance, please contact Julia Horrocks by email or phone at 828-210-3435.

In the course of your work, you may find that the client has other legal problems that are beyond the scope of the work you agreed to do with them. Please contact our staff about this as soon as possible. We may be able to assist the client with other issues in-house or refer them to another volunteer for additional assistance.

Pisgah Legal Services’ clients may be in crisis and under a great deal of stress due to domestic violence, serious housing problems, denial of health care, and other problems related to living in poverty. Dealing with crisis and a lack of financial resources can sometimes make it difficult for our clients to respond to phone calls or make it to appointments.

We recognize that this can cause challenges and frustration for you and your staff. If you have difficulty reaching your pro bono client or face any other challenges with a pro bono referral, please contact us as soon as possible so we can assist.

If you think someone may be eligible for assistance from Pisgah Legal Services (by a staff or volunteer attorney), please refer them to Julia Horrocks. Pisgah Legal will do an initial interview with the applicant and determine their eligibility. If you would like to assist the person you’ve referred to us and they are eligible, please let Julia know. Otherwise, we will assign the case to another attorney.