ACLEA Recognizes CLE Department

Article Date: Monday, August 03, 2009

Melissa Noderer, right, accepts award on behalf of the NCBA Foundation's CLE Department.

The CLE Department of the North Carolina Bar Association Foundation was recognized last week as a 2009 recipient of an ACLEA’s Best Award in the category of Public Interest.

Melissa Noderer, assistant director of CLE, accepted the award, which was presented in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, July 28, at the 45th Annual Conference of the Association of Continuing Legal Education.

The award recognizes the CLE Department’s role in the Home Foreclosure Prevention Program through which more than 450 lawyers and paralegals received free CLE training last year on how to conduct “Red Flag Reviews.”

The reviews are part of the foreclosure prevention effort that was initiated last year by the Office of the N.C. Commissioner of Banks. Attendees agreed to conduct two reviews at no cost in exchange for attending the CLE program free of charge.

In addition to providing attendees with the knowledge they will need to conduct “Red Flag Reviews,” the program also encouraged them to accept referrals of cases that involved mortgage modifications. Each program had attorneys from the Office of the Commissioner of Banks take the attendees step-by-step through the review process.

“With the number of homeowners needing assistance, we need ‘all hands on deck’ to help make sure we avoid needless foreclosures,” said Mark Pearce, deputy commissioner of banks.

“The North Carolina Bar Association has been an invaluable partner in recruiting capable volunteers to pitch in on this project.”

Three separate CLE programs were held across the state, the first of which was presented in Cary on Nov. 19. Some 125 attorneys and paralegals attended the live program at the N.C. Bar Center while another 100 attended via webcast, including lawyers in California, New York and Virginia.

Subsequent sessions were held in Wilmington on Dec. 10 and Charlotte on Dec. 12. The 450 lawyers and paralegals who were training during these three presentations represented the highest number of participants ever in an NCBA Foundation CLE public service program.

In addition to the NCBA Foundation’s CLE Department, the collaborative effort included the NCBA’s Real Property Section, the NCBA Foundation Pro Bono Project and Legal Aid of North Carolina.

“Without the support of the Bar Association and its CLE department we would not have realized the success we had in helping so many citizens of our state keep their homes,” stated Charlotte attorney Robert Allen who served as chair of the Real Property Section last year.

“The training and education we were able to provide was the most important part of the project. Without the training, our volunteers would not have been fully prepared to render the needed assistance to the Commissioner of Banks and Legal Aid of North Carolina.”

Allen was especially grateful for the efforts of Noderer and others from the N.C. Bar Center staff who supported the award-winning endeavor.

“This award is recognition of a very significant accomplishment by several organizations to help the people of North Carolina once again in a time of need,” said Ray Ruppert, director of CLE. “It reflects a longstanding tradition of the North Carolina Bar Association and the NCBA Foundation to heed calls for legal assistance to the citizens of our state.

‘Previously, our work has been recognized for aiding hurricane victims and returning veterans, and now victims of the mortgage meltdown. This award-winning effort is just another step in that tradition, a tradition that I’m confident will continue as our members respond to future calls for assistance.”

The honor also continues a tradition of excellence that has helped make the NCBA Foundation’s CLE Department a national model in regard to innovating programming, adaptation of emerging technology and the consistent delivery of CLE instruction that is second to none.

The 2009 ACLEA’s Best Award marks the fifth time this decade that the CLE Department has been recognized by the Association of Continuing Legal Education for its Public Interest work.