Bill Would Allow Inactive Attorneys To Lend A Hand To Legal Services Groups

Lawyers who retire from the practice of law would still be able to handle pro bono cases under a bill filed April 16 in the General Assembly.
House Bill 1487, titled “Pro Bono Emeritus Lawyers,” would allow attorneys to reap the benefits of inactive status — no Bar dues or annual CLE load — while lending a hand to the state’s legal services groups.
Under current law and State Bar rules, lawyers who take inactive status are prohibited from practicing.
An amendment to G.S. Sect. 84-16 would carve out a narrow exception. Inactive members would be permitted “to solely represent indigent clients on a pro bono basis under the supervision of nonprofit corporations,” including Legal Aid of North Carolina.
The House bill, sponsored by Reps. Dan Blue and Paul Stam on behalf of the State Bar, has drawn praise from legal services officials.
“This is a real opportunity to expand services for poor people with no real cost,” said George R. Hausen Jr., LANC’s executive director.
“This is a great idea whose time has certainly come,” said Winston-Salem lawyer Reid C. “Cal” Adams Jr., chair of LANC’s board of directors. “There is an overwhelming need for volunteer lawyers to help poor people in North Carolina. We’re only serving a small portion now.”
About 35 percent of the state’s 8.2 million residents qualify for free legal services, but LANC officials say they’re only able to handle a fraction of the eligible cases. LANC’s 100 attorneys, assisted by pro bono efforts of the private bar, close about 20,000 cases annually.
Dock Kornegay, director of public relations, estimates LANC handles 95 percent of all North Carolina cases that are referred to legal services organizations.
LANC operates in all 100 counties from 24 geographically-based offices (see chart). Three cities — Charlotte, Asheville and Winston-Salem — have legal service groups that are not part of LANC.
National Trend
The North Carolina bill stemmed from a national push by the American Bar Association to tap the expertise and energy of the estimated 40,000 lawyers who retire each year.
“These pro bono practice rules make it easier to give back and stay involved in the access to justice movement,” said Holly Robinson of the ABA Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly. “If we can harness all of these retiring lawyers and have them do some pro bono, everybody wins.”
In the past, volunteers were typically recruited by local legal services groups. Robinson recently targeted access to justice commissions, encouraging them to adopt rules in their respective states. That strategy has met with success.
“That is a new perspective,” she said. “A year ago, no one was talking about it in these terms. And that’s a good thing, because it makes the volunteer lawyers feel part of a larger effort, and it makes more resources available.”
One of the groups Robinson contacted was the North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission, which was established in 2005 to expand access to civil legal representation for low income people. A subcommittee chaired by Jerry Parnell, a Charlotte lawyer and former State Bar president, played a key role in the North Carolina proposal.
Bars in Indiana and Colorado also have proposals under consideration. Indiana’s rules would only allow attorneys licensed there to take part. The Colorado rule is broader. It would allow inactive attorneys who hold licenses in other states to participate.
The North Carolina bill, as currently written, appears to limit pro bono inactive status to lawyers licensed here.
Rules Not Enough
Robinson said emeritus rules by themselves are not enough.
“If you don’t also have some sort of organized effort at the state level, then the rule doesn’t get implemented,” she said. “You need somebody at the State Bar owning it and at least doing some marketing and PR and establishing connections with legal services providers.”
The state of Washington has developed a successful model, she said.
“There’s a window of time where you have to let the bar know what your status will be,” she said. “In Washington, they have a mandatory orientation for lawyers who are considering going emeritus. The Bar president shows up and thanks everyone for volunteering in what is really an access to justice effort. Then they have a providers’ fair. All of the providers that might use these attorneys show up in a room for a dog-and-pony show and make the matches that will work for the next year.”
Types Of Cases
More than half of LANC’s caseload falls in three practice areas: family law, domestic abuse and housing (see chart). Those fields are likely foreign to lawyers who’ve spent their careers in business law or as corporate counsel.
“One thing we find is that lawyers will say they can’t volunteer in those areas of law because they don’t know anything about it,” said Michelle Cofield, executive director of the Equal Access to Justice Commission. “But if it is something as simple as a landlord-tenant dispute, where you can be in and out of small claims court within an hour, bar associations can provide training through CLEs. If you’re a pro bono or volunteer lawyer, you get significantly reduced rates.”
State Bar Action
Although pro bono emeritus attorneys would not have to pay Bar dues or take CLE, they’d still have to comply with the rules of professional conduct and would remain subject to discipline, according to Alice Mine, the Bar’s assistant executive director.
Assuming the bill is enacted between now and the Bar council’s July meeting, “we would expect to present, for the council’s consideration, amendments to the State Bar rules to implement the program,” said Tom Lunsford, the State Bar’s executive director.
Those amendments would have to be published for public comment before coming up for a final vote, possibly in October.
— Questions or comments may be directed to [email protected].