RALEIGH, N.C. — Poyner Spruill LLP is pleased to announce five of the firm’s attorneys were named to the 2018 North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society.
Tom Davis, J.M. Durnovich, Drew Erteschik, Cheslie Kryst, and Caroline Mackie were included among 468 attorneys the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center (PBRC) recognized. Honorees must report 50 or more hours of pro bono legal services to clients unable to pay without expectation of a fee, an aspirational threshold set by Rule 6.1 of the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct.
Each member of this year’s Honor Society class receives a certificate from the Supreme Court of North Carolina in recognition of their valuable contributions to the people of North Carolina. This group of attorneys provided more than 41,000 hours of pro bono legal services in 2018 to clients unable to afford needed legal services.
“Poyner Spruill encourages all attorneys in their pursuit of meaningful legal work, including the opportunity to provide pro bono services,” Poyner Spruill managing partner Dan Cahill said. “The firm congratulates Tom, J.M., Drew, Cheslie and Caroline on earning this recognition from the Pro Bono Honor Society. Their commitment to helping others through this type of work is commendable, and the honors are well-deserved.”
All 1,420 attorneys who shared information about their pro bono volunteerism together provided nearly 54,000 hours of pro bono legal services in 2018.
Rule 6.1 encourages a variety of activities in addition to the pro bono legal services recognized by the Honor Society. Other encouraged activities include providing legal services at a substantially reduced fee; engaging in activities that improve the law, the legal system, or the legal profession; participating in non-legal community service; and contributing financially to North Carolina legal aid organizations.
“The North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society helps us as a legal profession to shine a light on those attorneys making outstanding contributions to North Carolinians who need, but cannot afford, legal help,” said Chief Justice Cheri Beasley of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. “By recognizing these important and valuable pro bono services, we celebrate our state’s lawyers committed to ensuring equal access to justice for all.”
Launched in 2016, the PBRC began collecting responses from attorneys about pro bono involvement through the state’s first voluntary reporting process in January 2017. The program aims to increase North Carolina attorney pro bono legal service as a way to meet the legal needs of people of low-income and modest means in our state.
