Supreme Court joins thriving appellate pro bono program.

Byline: Bill Cresenzo

[Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories looking at various ways that attorneys across the state are providing pro bono legal services.]

When Dan Gibson got word at the end of August that he would be taking on a complicated child custody case appeal, he pored through 1,500 pages of documents and delivered his arguments to North Carolina Court of Appeals the day after Labor Day.

"I learned how quickly I can read a record and file a brief," said Gibson, an attorney with Stam Law Firm in Apex.

Gibson is a volunteer with the North Carolina Appellate Pro Bono program, which connects unrepresented parties in appellate cases with lawyers who will represent them for free. The trial court had denied his client visitation with and custody of her two children, even though it hadn't found that she was unfit as a parent or had acted inconsistently with her constitutional right to the care, custody, and control of her minor children.

"We argued that denying custody and visitation without making these findings violated North Carolina law and due process," Gibson recalled. "I want to help people who can't help themselves, and I am interested in advancing North Carolina's law. I hope my case will set good precedent and make my client's life better."

Gibson's appeal was successful. And as it approaches its two-year mark in March, the Appellate Pro Bono program is now such a success that the North Carolina Supreme Court said on Feb. 14 that it will join the program, said Sylvia Novinsky, director of the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center.

Attorneys with the program report that pro bono attorneys have represented clients in the Court of Appeals in just under a dozen appeals. And they want to put more attorneys on its roster, particularly those who want to sharpen their appellate skills.

"A lot of people want to be appellate lawyers, but when you are in private practice, it's very difficult for young lawyers to get experience writing appellate briefs and arguments," said Matt Leerberg, an attorney with Fox Rothschild in Raleigh, who's led training courses for the program. "It gives an opportunity for lawyers, especially those who are not as familiar with established appellate practices, to gain experience representing real clients in our appellate courts."

The cases that the Court of Appeals assigns to the program must meet two criteria--one of the parties must be unrepresented, and the appeal must contain at least one...