On October 1, the WV State Bar received the following message from Alice Mine, Executive Director of the North Carolina State Bar, seeking our help with legal services badly needed by residents affected by the recent devastation from Hurricane Helene. This type of weather event just wasn’t anticipated in the mountains of North Carolina. As a fellow member of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents and a mountain state, please review Alice’s message below and the attached form and order and consider providing temporary pro bono legal services for those in need in North Carolina.
View Official Documents Here:
Official order from the Supreme Court of North Carolina
Temporary Pro Bono Practice Form
An Updated Message from Alice Mine, Executive Director of the North Carolina State Bar
Dear Friends,
Thank you all so much for your rapid and effective response to my request that you notify your membership of the Katrina Order for North Carolina. Within days of sending my email to you, every one of you had done something to get the word out to your members that their volunteer service in North Carolina to victims of Hurricane Helene would be so gratefully appreciated. We already have over a hundred applications for temporary admission and the number increases every day.
We are readily admitting the applicants and then forwarding their names to Legal Aid of North Carolina and the NC Pro Bono Resource Center. The NC Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division is also spearheading legal relief services and the list of out-of-state volunteers will be provided to that organization as we are directed. An organizer with one of these organizations will soon get in touch with the applicants to tell them how they can help. The volunteers will be able to provide legal assistance remotely. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to restore the internet in western NC, so there will be some delay in getting things going. I am told that the need for volunteers will continue for, possibly, up to a year, so anyone who volunteers will be put to good use at some point in time.
Despite all the hardship, we are seeing tremendous cooperation in impacted neighborhoods and communities in Western North Carolina with everyone pulling together to help each other and to share what resources they have. It is heartening to see the best of humanity in the worst of situations. The executive directors of the Southern Conference are, likewise, pulling together in a time of need for my bar. I am deeply grateful to each of you for your assistance, support, and compassion. I am also deeply grateful for the SCBP—for the networking and relationship building it provides. Jackson will be my last hurrah with the SCBP as I retire at the end of the year. Please treasure and nurture the organization as the invaluable resource that it is for each of us.
Warm Regards,
Alice Neece Mine
Executive Director
North Carolina State Bar
Greetings Friends,
The situation in the North Carolina mountains following the massive flooding in the region last Friday from Tropical Storm/Hurricane Helene is devastating. For those you who attended the SCBP held in Asheville in 1995: this beautiful mountain town is irrevocably changed. It is heartbreaking. I know that Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are also feeling the impact of the storm, and I extend my heartfelt sympathy and concern to your citizens and communities.
The situation in the NC mountains is particularly dire right now because, being an inland, mountain region, no one was prepared for this kind of event. People are without power, water, cell service, passable roads, etc., all amidst tremendous destruction of homes and businesses.
We are anticipating an unprecedented need for lawyers to help victims of the storm with the many legal problems that will arise including landlord/tenant issues, consumer fraud, and most specifically FEMA applications. To this end, we have obtained a “Katrina order” from the NC Chief Justice (attached) that permits lawyers licensed in other states but not in NC to temporarily register with the North Carolina State Bar to provide pro bono legal services to indigent residents of NC who are victims of Helene. I have attached the form to file with our membership department to obtain permission for this limited practice. Once registered with us, we will share the lawyer’s name and contact information with Legal Aid of NC and other non-profit agencies that are working on the legal aspects of disaster relief. They will contact the lawyer with pro bono service opportunities.
Please share the order and the form with your membership or as you otherwise deem appropriate. Any volunteer lawyers who can help our beloved mountain communities will be so greatly appreciated.
The storm has had no impact on me personally as it only brought about 5 inches of rain to the Raleigh area of NC. However, members of our governing council, friends, and some family members who live in the mountains were impacted. Of the folks I have been able to contact, all are alive and with little or no damage to their homes; however, all are without power, water, and cell service. We do know that at least two NC lawyers died during the storm.
Let me know if you have any questions about the order or the application form. Thank you for helping us to get the word out.
Warm regards,
AliceAlice Neece Mine
Executive Director
North Carolina State Bar
217 E. Edenton Street
Raleigh, NC 27601
O: (919) 828-4620
M: (919) 265-4584
