“LAWYER EDUCATION” WORKING GROUP CHARTER

GOALS:

• Empower North Carolina lawyers, law students, and paralegals to participate in the annual 4ALL Campaign by reworking existing materials to develop and disseminate a “toolkit” of materials that will provide information about the need for greater involvement by members of the legal community in providing legal services to the poor and that also will illustrate the positive impact participation in the 4ALL Campaign will have in this regard.  We also will show the LANC “Equal Access” video on the screens in the NC Bar Center during the registration/breakfast period of each CLE during the months of January and February 2009.
  
  
• Expand the reach of the 4ALL Campaign by establishing a speakers bureau.
   
  
• Enrich future 4ALL Campaigns by capturing on film this year’s volunteer participation at the 4ALL Call Centers and the positive reaction to assisting others, incorporating the footage in next year’s Educate Working Group “toolkit.”

BACKGROUND:

To a great extent, the problem of lack of access to justice for the poor is a problem of lack of education – lack of education on the part of the lawyers and other members of the legal community who might help solve this problem if only they understood it better.      

Thus, as part of the 4ALL Task Force, the Educate Working Group is tasked with educating members of the North Carolina legal community about poverty issues in the state and LANC’s inability to meet the legal needs of the poor unless lawyers, particularly, step forward and live up to our professional and moral obligation to act.      

Each Working Group plays a critical role in ensuring the success of the overall 4ALL Campaign, enriching and building upon the work of the other Working Groups and enhancing their success in meeting their particular goals.  In this regard, the Educate Working Group recognizes and is mindful of the fact that the degree to which members of the legal community will feel called to donate to the NCBA Foundation’s LANC Fund, to participate in the 4ALL service day, or to lobby those who legislate to enact laws that will help ensure access to justice for individuals in poverty, will depend greatly on our group’s success in achieving our goals to educate the North Carolina legal community about this critically important issue and the means the NCBA provides for us all to help redress this injustice.

Last Update: Friday, January 16, 2009