January 2012
Article Date: Sunday, January 01, 2012
The NCBA Young Lawyers Division Bulletin
January 2012
Dates to Know
- January 12, 2012: Greensboro Bar Association Young Lawyers
Section Social, Café Europa, Greensboro
- January 21, 2012: YLD Winter Quarterly Meeting, Holiday Inn
Express, Boone, NC
- January 21, 2012: Wills for Heroes Event, Caldwell Community
College and Technical Institute Watauga Campus, Boone, NC
- February 4, 2012: "Ask a Lawyer" Day, locations statewide
- February 18, 2012: Wills for Heroes Event, Raleigh, NC
- April 21, 2012: Wills for Heroes Event, Charlotte, NC
** To have a date included in the YLD Blast, please contact
Allyson Labban at Allyson.Labban@smithmoorelaw.com
Greensboro Young Lawyers Social
The Greensboro Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section will host
a social at Café Europa in downtown Greensboro from 5:00 p.m. until
7:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 12. Café Europa is located at 200 N.
Davie Street.
Wills for Heroes
A very successful Wills for Heroes event was held in Greensboro
at the Elon School of Law on Saturday, December 17, 2011. A total
of 255 free estate planning documents were prepared for 85 first
responders and spouses by 47 volunteers. To date, 1,258 volunteers
have prepared 9,299 documents for 3,173 first responders and
spouses across the state.
The next event is scheduled for January 21, 2012 in Boone, to
correspond with the YLD Quarterly Meeting. Licensed North Carolina
attorneys are needed to draft wills, durable powers of attorney,
and health care powers of attorney. Notaries and witnesses are also
needed. No prior estate law experience is needed, and training
sessions will be provided at 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. If you are
interested in volunteering please visit the Wills for Heroes Boone
page of the NC Bar website at
http://younglawyers.ncbar.org/resources/wills-for-heroes/boone-january-21-2012.aspx.
Additional questions may be directed to Heidi Royal at HRoyal@rbh.com or Jillian Brevorka
at jebrevorka@pjblaw.net.
YLD Winter Quarterly Meeting
The YLD's Winter Quarterly Meeting will take place at the
Holiday Inn Express in Boone. Breakfast begins at 9:00 a.m. on
Saturday, January 21, and the meeting follows from 9:30 a.m. until
11:15 a.m. A block of rooms has been reserved at the hotel, but
reservations must be made by January 6 using the code "NCBA YLD."
Availability is limited.
Hotel: Rooms are
available at the Holiday Inn Express for Friday, January 20, 2012
and/or Saturday, January 21, 2012 for the special rate of $99.00 a
night (2 queen beds).
To get the special rate, you must reserve your
room by calling the Holiday Inn Express at (888) 733-6867 no later than Friday, January 6, 2012.
You also must use the special code "NCBA
YLD" when reserving your room. Available rooms at the
Holiday Inn Express are limited so reserve your room as soon as
possible.
Other Hotels: In case the
Holiday Inn Express is booked when you call to reserve your room,
please use the following link for information on other hotels in
the area:
http://boonechamber.chambermaster.com/list/category/hotels-inns-motels
Community Relations Committee
The Community Relations Committee is currently organizing the
2012 statewide Ask a Lawyer Day event.
One of the Committee's responsibilities is to help organize an
Ask a Lawyer event in as many North Carolina communities as
possible. The goals of the Ask a Lawyer program are:
- To provide legal services and information to the community,
especially to those who may not have access to legal assistance
otherwise.
- To project a positive image of young lawyers and the legal
profession as a whole.
- To educate the general public about our legal system.
- To give young lawyers practical experience in counseling
clients.
This coming year's event will be held on Saturday, February 4,
2012. We currently anticipate that the following cities and county
will host an Ask a Lawyer event on February 4, 2012: Asheville,
Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Hendersonville, New Bern,
Raleigh, Wilmington, Winston-Salem, and Brunswick County. The
Community Relations Committee is also exploring the possibility of
having Spanish-speaking translators and attorneys at the Asheville,
Greensboro, and Raleigh events. If any YLD members are interested
in volunteering for an event in the above-referenced cities/county
or hosting an event in a different city or county, please contact
Jeremy Shrader at jss@crlaw.com,
Nick Bakatsias at njb@crlaw.com,
or Stephen Cash at SCash@roberts-stevens.com.
Do You Need a Mentor?
The NCBA and the YLD have successfully launched the NCBA
Mentoring Program. Experienced and dedicated mentors from around
the state are ready to assist young attorneys as traditional and
situational mentors. This is an ideal time to request a mentor.
Young attorneys have the opportunity to learn from judges,
litigators, mediators, negotiators, and arbitrators. From how to
get on a court's calendar, to how to handle a difficult client, to
how to manage the intense pressure of your career, the NCBA mentors
can help! For more information, go to the NCBA Mentoring
Program website.
To serve as a mentor, please access the application and
additional information at:
https://www.ncbar.org/about/ncba-mentorship-program/ncba-mentor-application.aspx
* Committee News *
Pro Bono And Poverty Issues Committee
The Pro Bono & Poverty Issues Committee is looking for
volunteers to help with several projects. First, the Committee
seeks attorneys who are willing to volunteer for a "Board Match
Program". This provides a younger attorney with experience advising
a non-profit organization's Board regarding various legal issues,
and it provides the participating non-profits with a valuable
perspective on their Board. For more information or to sign up,
please contact Bryan Scott at bscott@spilmanlaw.com. The
Committee is also playing a supporting role in the Call 4 ALL
project that enlists volunteer attorneys to help Legal Aid screen
clients. This project has been developed by the wider NCBA, and we
are eager for your involvement and input. Please contact Oliver
Carter at oliver@carterandcarterlaw.com
if you would like to participate in the Call 4 ALL project.
Last but not least, the Pro Bono & Poverty Issues Committee
has planned a number of legal clinics around the state. The clinics
offer an opportunity for young attorneys to answer general
questions from under-served communities. Our clinics are often held
at venues such as the Salvation Army, employment training centers,
homeless shelters, halfway houses, and other meeting places where
we can reach out to people who need legal advice but cannot afford
it. Several clinics are in the works for this spring. For
information on clinics in Raleigh and Durham, please email Elleveve
Donahue at ebboyer@gmail.com; for
information on clinics in Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Boone, and
Asheville, please contact Bryan Scott at bscott@spilmanlaw.com; and
for information on clinics in Wilmington and Charlotte, please
contact oliver@carterandcarterlaw.com.
Bar Exam Committee
The YLD Bar Exam Committee continues to accept requests for
tutors from those who need assistance in preparing for the North
Carolina Bar Exam. Please send an e-mail to sections@ncbar.org with your
name, telephone number and city, so that a tutor can be paired with
you.
* Article of the Month *
Coverage Regarding Montana Supreme Court's Refusal to Follow
Citizens United
In Montana,
Corporations Aren't People: Can Montana get away with defying the
Supreme Court on Citizens United?
http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202537311056&Montana_Supreme_Court_Defies_Citizens_United_Ruling
Multiple news outlets and pundits have reported on the Montana
Supreme Court's decision to reject the precedent established by the
U.S. Supreme Court in its Citizens United case that led to the
creation of political super PACs. Dalia Lithwick of Slate dissects
the opinion and posits that the opinion reflects a growing
discomfort with the power exercised by corporations in the
electoral process, while other sources question the impact this
unfolding saga will have on First Amendment jurisprudence. The text
of the opinion is available here.
* Event of the Month *
Blowing Rock Winterfest Celebration
Blowing Rock, NC
www.blowingrockwinterfest.com
Multiple events are available at the 14th annual Blowing Rock
Winterfest Celebration, including wine auctions, ice carving, a
chili cook-off, and live bluegrass, as well as the Polar Plunge
into Chetola Lake. Events take place from January 26 through
January 29.
* Website of the Month *
Mint.com: Online Budgeting and Personal Finance Software
http://www.mint.com
* Blog of the Month *
"That's What She Said" Blog
http://blogs.hrhero.com/thatswhatshesaid/
This blog reviews episodes of NBC's "The Office" and estimates
the per-episode value of litigation claims against Dunder
Mifflin.