NCBA LRS Benefit So Sweet, a Member Just Had To Bring Us Chocolates

The Lawyer Referral Service is one of many benefits available to NCBA members.
Renew your membership before Oct. 31 to stay with the NCBA.

By M’Lea Peak
NCBA Lawyer Referral Service Program Coordinator

Not every attorney on his way to pay a $20,000 bill would have a spring in his step and smile on his face. But when Steve Paul stopped by the North Carolina Bar Center on a sunny afternoon last fall, not only was he smiling, he was also carrying an armload of Godiva chocolates for the NCBA Lawyer Referral Service staff.

Paul was dropping off a remittance fee check representing 10 percent of his share of a medical negligence case that originated with a referral from LRS. Standard operating procedure does not require attorneys to deliver their remittance fee checks in person – or for them to bring chocolates – but the LRS staff is happy to accommodate both practices.

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Providing Legal Aid To Hurricane Florence Victims Will Help Them — and You

By Amber Nimocks

The feelings of panic and helplessness that overcame us as we watched Hurricane Florence ravage our state have dissipated only slightly as the skies have cleared. The persistent question remains: “How can I help?”

The North Carolina Bar Association and Foundation have several answers to that question. Among them is NC Disaster Legal Services (NC DLS), a collaborative effort to provide immediate pro bono legal assistance to survivors of Hurricane Florence, supported by the North Carolina Bar Association, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association and Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC).

Volunteers who worked with NC DLS following Hurricane Matthew in 2016 keenly understand the powerful ways this program can support victims who are facing legal questions and conundrums they have never been faced with before. After Matthew, nearly 200 North Carolina lawyers volunteered to assist more than 300 storm survivors. The comments of a few of them below attest to the power of this volunteer work.

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Checking In: Sept. 4, 2018

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Ann Marie Holder has joined Colombo, Kitchin, Dunn, Ball & Porter, LLP in Greenville, N.C., as an associate attorney. Holder has worked in big and small firm practices, public counsel service, and the Governor’s Legal Counsel Office. Holder will practice in the areas of administrative law, estate and trust planning and administration, contract disputes and commercial litigation. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center.

 

 

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Checking In: Aug. 18, 2018

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James King has joined Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP as an associate based in its Raleigh office. King will join the firm’s Medical Malpractice Practice Group. King previously worked in the general litigation practice of a law firm in Greensboro. Prior to joining CSH Law, he worked on a variety of matters including the defense of medical malpractice claims and professional licensing board investigations.  King is a North Carolina native and a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law, with honors.

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Avoid a Benchslap: Four Writing Tips You Ignore At Your Peril

By Abigail Perdue

Above the Law’s founder, David Lat, has been credited with coining the term “benchslap” in 2004.[1] It generally refers to a particularly scathing insult from a judge to an attorney, litigant, or on occasion, another judge.

Benchslaps occur in many forms and for many reasons. For example, in Mannheim Video v. County of Cook, a Seventh Circuit panel “benchslapped” counsel by pointing out that the “ostrich-like tactic of pretending that potentially dispositive authority against a litigant’s contention does not exist is as unprofessional as it is pointless.”[2] Likewise, in denying a motion for disqualification, a U.S. District Court Judge concluded that the Defendants “aspire[d] to be magicians. . . . [L]ike David Copperfield’s tricks, their motion [was] nothing but smoke and mirrors.”[3] He expressed doubt that counsel had “adequately research[ed] the case law”[4] and warned them to “think twice before filing such a baseless motion” or “risk being sanctioned.”[5]

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Call It What You Want, This Blog Thing Is Catching On

By Amber Nimocks

Welcome to your new NCBarBlog, NCBA members and guests. I hope you like the changes we’ve made because we made them with you in mind. With a new look and feel, and some upcoming tweaks to the member posting process, the NCBA blog community aspires to be a welcoming space where you can read, write and stay involved with your NCBA.

NCBarBlog has taken off since we launched it three years ago thanks to member support and contributions. Twenty-eight Sections and Divisions have moved their content from the newsletter format to NCBarBlog since we kicked off, with six more slated to embrace the blog during this 2018-19 bar year.

During 2017-18, more than 300 posts went up on NCBarBlog, earning tens of thousands of page views. Those who have attended the Section and Division Council meetings where I presented information on newsletter readership know that this means a lot more eyes are seeing the articles that members work so hard to research, write and edit.

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Checking In: July 23, 2018

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Pardis Camarda has joined Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP as an associate based in its Wilmington office. Pardis will join the firm’s Admiralty & Maritime Practice. Pardis previously worked as Staff Counsel at a law firm in Middletown, NY where she practiced injury litigation and as an associate at a Queens, NY law firm where she practiced real estate law. Pardis received her law degree from the St. John’s University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Stony Brook University.  She is admitted to practice law in North Carolina and New York.

 

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Annual Meeting ’18 Draws a Near-Record Crowd

By James Kilbourne

It feels like just yesterday that the sun set across the Cape Fear River on the last night of the 2018 Annual Meeting in Wilmington.

For decades, the attorneys of North Carolina have been meeting every summer to discuss changes to the law, to honor the most deserving in the profession, and to break bread together as lawyers and friends.  In June during three fun-filled, eventful days, a near-record number of Bar Association members, their spouses, and guests traveled to the coast to partake in the annual gathering. Wilmington did not disappoint, as you can see in our pictures and videos.

The attendees included:

  •             406 Bar Association Members
  •             285 Registered Guests
  •             150 Superior Court Judges (approximately)
  •             8 former or current N.C. Supreme Court Justices
  •             A Quorum of the en banc Court of Appeals
  •             A Gaggle of kids, dogs, and other fun-seekers

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Checking In: New Feature Keeps You Up To Date On Career Moves and Changes

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Checking In: Career Moves and Changes is the newest regular feature on NCBarBlog.com. We’ll update you here on hirings and promotions at North Carolina law firms and practices of any size. NCBA members and non-member attorneys and paralegals qualify for inclusion in the Checking In column, offered at no cost. Email all notifications to Kelly Connors, [email protected].

Please see the Checking In Guidelines for details on what types of announcements qualify for inclusion in the column.

Alesha Brown has joined Cranfill Sumner & Hartzog LLP as an associate based in its Charlotte office where she will practice civil litigation. She previously practiced insurance defense at a firm in New York City and served as counsel to the New York City Council’s Committees on Civil Rights and Contracts.  Brown grew up in Charleston, S.C. and received her law degree from New York Law School and her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina where she graduated magna cum laude.

 

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Privacy and Data Security Law: Kind of a Big Deal

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By Alex Pearce

One of the hottest areas in the law is privacy and data security.  Both the NCBA and our colleagues at the North Carolina State Bar have noticed.

In this inaugural blog post of the NCBA’s Privacy and Data Security Committee, we discuss two developments of which all North Carolina lawyers interested in this important field should take note: (1) the State Bar’s new Privacy and Information Security Law specialty certification, and (2) plans for our Committee to become a full-fledged NCBA Section.

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