Thank you so much for your interest in UNC Law School's spring break pro bono trip to Eastern North Carolina. After our first meeting on Thursday Feb. 19, I think it's safe to say that we, the participating students and attorneys, are pretty pumped.
During our first meeting, we discussed the details and plans for the trip, and signed up for our trip committees (obviously, I was lucky enough to snag a spot on the "blog" committee). We also received our training materials and heard a great lecture from Celia Pistolis, Legal Aid of NC, on all of the documents we will be using. Mark Dorosin and Sarah Krishnaraj from the Center for Civil Rights and Sylvia Novinsky, Assistant Dean for Public Service Programs at UNC Law, were also there to lend their support and insight.
For those of you who are just recently learning about this project - as this is the first trip of its kind, I would assume this to include most of you - here is a brief summary of the purpose, goals, and plans for our trip to Eastern NC (with thanks to Seema for writing it):
The Problem. African-Americans in the United States are losing land two and a half times faster than white landowners. This disproportionate trend has persisted to such extremes that African-Americans now own less than one percent of all privately-owned rural land in the U.S. The land loss contributes to the expansive wealth gap in this country such that on average black households have just one-third of the wealth of white households.
The Law. Much of the property owned by low-wealth and minority landowners has passed through generations without a will, creating fragmented land ownership interests called tenancies-in-common. This ownership interest is subject to North Carolina law governing partition sales, giving the owner of the property interest the right to force a sale of the property without the permission of the other tenants-in-common. Due to inequities in these laws, the lack of adequate legal representation, and growing development pressures, long held family land is often lost through partition sales.
What We Will Be Doing. Partnering with the UNC Center for Civil Rights and Legal Aid of North Carolina, 19 UNC Law students will assist in preparing wills and advanced directives for low wealth clients in seven rural, Eastern North Carolina counties. Our goal through this project is to give land owners the opportunity to decide how their property will be distributed and to reduce the vulnerabilities of land ownership of the tenancy-in-common._______________________
We will gratefully accept any donations to help subsidize our travel costs. Thank you all so much for your support! All donations are tax deductible and you will receive a letter from UNC Law recognizing your gift. There are two ways to donate:
1. You may write a check payable to UNC School of Law, with “Pro Bono Discretionary Fund” in the memo line. Checks can be sent to: UNC School of Law Pro Bono Program, c/o Dean Sylvia Novinsky, Campus Box #3380, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
2. Or you may donate online at http://giving.unc.edu/gift/. After selecting your method of payment, please select “School of Law” as the University Designation, “Other” as the University Fund, and then indicate “Pro Bono Discretionary Fund” in the box for Other Instructions below that.
Finally, I'm listing below all of the students, faculty, and attorneys going on the trip. I'm looking forward to keeping you all posted on our thrilling adventures (and even if they are not entirely "thrilling," I'll still try to make them seem like adventures)!
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