Paralegals devote hundreds of hours to pro bono service

A few days before attending the N.C. Bar Association’s annual convention, Andrea Blosser was preparing to receive the group’s 2024 Distinguished Paralegal Award.

As much as she looked forward to the recognition, an opportunity to volunteer at a pro bono clinic after the convention really got her excited.

“I can’t wait to volunteer at the Bar Association’s sexual orientation and gender identity name change clinic” she said. “It will be great.”

Blosser, a litigation paralegal at Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte, believes she was born to help others. Volunteering is in her soul. The emphasis her firm places on pro bono activities is just one of the reasons she loves her job.

“Our firm has a huge push for giving back to the community and having the opportunity to devote my time to that is great,” she said. “Many people need and deserve justice, yet they often cannot afford legal fees.”

Last year, Blosser recorded more than 270 pro bono hours with the N.C. Pro Bono Resource Center. She has been on the Paralegal Pro Bono Honor Roll for the last three years since paralegals were included.

Since launching in 2016, the center has been collecting responses from attorneys about their pro bono commitment to meeting the legal needs of low- and moderate-income North Carolinians. In 2021, the reporting expanded to include paralegals. Attorneys and paralegals who record 50 or more pro bono hours in a year qualify for the Pro Bono Honor Roll. In 2023 over 1,300 attorneys and 17 paralegals were inducted.

The Pro Bono Resource Center is a part of the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission, which was established by the N.C. Supreme Court in 2005.

“The Resource Center is a way for us to encourage legal professionals to do pro bono work,” its director, Sylvia Novinsky, said. “Some law firms have s system for providing volunteer opportunities, but if they don’t, we can provide lists of opportunities through the center.”

The center has set up an interactive site at ncprobono.org/opportunities where attorneys and paralegals can go to find pro bono opportunities.

“It’s a way we can say here’s a place to go,” said Rachel Royal, project manager for the commission. “It’s a way to find something that’s the right fit for you, whether in your own community, your practice area or a practice area you’re interested in learning more about.”

Blosser, who has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, started her career in crisis intervention, working with adults with persistent mental illness. Her experience in case management is a good fit for her paralegal career.

“Keeping case notes, talking with patients and clients, and staying organized just translated into paralegal work,” she said.

In her role as a litigation paralegal at Robinson Bradshaw, she loves the variety each day brings.

“No day is the same,” she said. “I love learning new things, digging up the facts of my cases, and never being bored.”

Translating legal forms

Before immigrating to the United States, Johana Sanchez was an attorney in her native Venezuela. She is now a paralegal at the Armendariz Law Firm in Raleigh.

Even though she no longer practices law, she loves her role as a paralegal focusing on family law.

“We don’t have paralegals in my country, and I think it’s a totally amazing career in the U.S.,” she said.

Sanchez credits her law firm for giving her the time to volunteer at the Wake County Legal Support Center, a program housed in the county courthouse that assists individuals representing themselves in court and other legal proceedings.

Sanchez volunteers as a translator, helping Spanish speakers navigate the court system. She volunteered there almost every week from the day the center opened in January 2023 through December, racking up over 200 pro bono hours. She also serves as a notary.

“I help people fill out forms and translate as we go, so they know I am using their own words and not mine,” she said. “Some Spanish speakers who came here at an early age never went to school to learn to read and write, but they deserve access to justice, and I’m always glad to help them.”

For Sanchez, pro bono work takes her back to her roots in Venezuela, and volunteering feeds her soul.

“My mom was a dentist in the public system, and my dad was a teacher,” she said. “When I went to law school, my dream was to work in public service.”

Helping entrepreneurs

Jill Okerlund has discovered her passion for helping entrepreneurs and small business owners through service with CLIMB — the Charlotte Legal Initiative to Mobilize Businesses. It is a program launched through the collaborative efforts of three law firms to provide legal services to small business owners in underserved communities.

She also is a member of the Pro Bono Honor Society, donating over 200 hours last year.

Okerlund is a legal process coordinator with Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte and was recruited to CLIMB to help the efforts of the three founding firms: Robinson Bradshaw, Moore Van Allen and McGuireWoods.

“I would say that the work I do for CLIMB is my favorite part of the day,” she said. “We’ve served about 120 clients, and it’s just amazing to see all the different types of businesses and entrepreneurs we’ve helped. We’re able to connect them with lawyers who are eager to work with them.”

She says that as a paralegal, she might not have known about opportunities like CLIMB if her firm had not encouraged volunteerism.

“While it’s wonderful to be recognized, it is amazing to be a part of a larger group of people helping others,” she said. “I think for so long, the attorneys were recognized and it’s wonderful that professional staff are also being recognized for their contributions.”

Access to justice in South Carolina

In South Carolina, the state Supreme Court established the Access to Justice Commission in 2007 to develop broad policy issues that impact access to the courts for poor people, Executive Director Hannah Honeycutt said.

One way the commission helps is to create opportunities for lawyers to provide limited scope representation for clients on a pro bono basis. The South Carolina Bar and other legal organizations in the state also offer programs to match individuals with pro bono lawyers.

Honeycutt, who is the commission’s only staff member, is keen to expand pro bono opportunities, including through the Legal Resource Finder she developed alongside a class at Georgetown Law.

“The Legal Resource Finder takes users through a series of questions about the type of legal problem they’re having, where they live and their income,” she said. “The program then suggests legal aid organizations and other self-help resources available to assist them based on their specific needs.”

In 2021, the Access to Justice Commission published South Carolina’s first justice gap report, based on data from the census about poverty in the state, data from South Carolina Legal Services about the cases it takes, and data from the state’s court system. Together this data paints a picture of need. In 2023, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro created a similar in-depth needs assessment for North Carolina.

“Data is important to understanding the needs and to create solutions that are targeted to those needs, especially the civil needs that touch everyone’s life, from housing to family law to health care,” she said. “Stepping up and doing pro bono work should really be at the forefront of our minds.”

Going forward, the commission is focusing on developing relationships with other legal organizations, recruiting volunteers from its membership and creating pro bono opportunities that attorneys can get excited about and have time to do, like limited-scope representation and clinics that are more bite-sized.

“A little service can go a long way,” Honeycutt said. “Even small clinics and limited services can be a big deal for the people who need help.”

Wills for Heroes

At Nelson Mullins’ Columbia office, Kelli Eargle has been involved in her firm’s pro bono efforts for the entire 32 years that she’s been with the firm. She is a litigation paralegal and has witnessed the firm’s growth.

“We had just opened our fifth office when I joined the firm, and now, we are at 35 offices,” she said.

She recalls a pro bono case she worked on as a novice paralegal.

“Nelson Mullins represented some juveniles incarcerated at the Department of Juvenile Justice, who were suing the state so they could get adequate mental health care and adequate education,” she said. “That was my first exposure to pro bono work, and it was very fulfilling.”

Today, she has developed a passion for participating in her firm’s Wills for Heroes program, helping first responders create wills and power of attorney documents.

“It’s great to meet the first responders and to do this for them,” she said. “We are the first faces they see when they come to our clinics. We talk to them and collect information and then pass them off to one of the lawyers who drafts their wills.”

These clinics usually serve 30 to 40 people with about 10 attorneys on standby to draft wills. Eargle and another paralegal help establish healthcare power of attorney documents.

“Before COVID, I think we were doing three or four clinics a year, and now we do about two a year,” she said. “It’s just a great program.”

As a bonus, Eargle has learned how to prepare power of attorney documents.

“If it hadn’t been for these clinics, I never would have been exposed to probate work or estate planning or anything like that,” she said. “I think it’s important in our profession that we try to give back to others, and I think it’s just important to work outside your box and to have an outlet where you feel you’re giving back to somebody who’s not as fortunate or as privileged as you are.”

Blosser agrees. The rewards are immense, especially the expressions of gratitude.

Last year, she assisted in a trial for a woman in western North Carolina who filed a racial discrimination case.

“We ended up successfully securing a jury verdict for her, and just to see how grateful she was for that was phenomenal,” she said. “I get to do things I don’t normally do in the course of my normal business day, and there’s not a single pro bono matter I love the most, because I love them all.”