NC LEAP Fund Drive Surpasses Midway Mark
Article Date: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
NC LEAP – the increasingly familiar acronym of the North Carolina Lawyers for Entrepreneurs Assistance Program – is in the midst of its second fundraising drive and the first since the North Carolina Bar Association launched the pro bono program in 2007.
This is also the first fundraising endeavor for Mary Horowitz who assumed the directorship of NC LEAP earlier this year.
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| Mary Horowitz |
“The goal for our 2010-12 fundraising drive is $300,000,” Horowitz said. “I am pleased to report that we have achieved 55 percent of our goal, having raised $164,502 to date.”
The funds will underwrite operation of the program for three years.
“For those firms and individuals who have not had a chance to participate, the door is still open,” Horowitz added. “Our target date for concluding the campaign is July 31.”
NC LEAP is a statewide pro bono program that provides free business and transactional legal services to low-wealth entrepreneurs and small business owners. It provides transactional legal services related to business formation, development, and expansion, and primarily serves micro-business owners within the state.
NC LEAP volunteer attorneys are attorneys practicing within the business, corporate, intellectual property, bankruptcy, or other transactional sectors, who are looking for a way to give back to their communities and fulfill the aspirational pro bono requirements of Rule 6.1 in a practice area where they have a high degree of expertise and comfort.
The NCBA’s Business Law Section has been intricately involved in the program since its inception and remains an active participate in the fundraising drive. The Business Law Section, the Corporate Counsel Section and the Intellectual Property Section have adopted NC LEAP as their signature project.
Concurrent with the success of the fundraising drive, NC LEAP is working, and has been ever since it was launched in Greensboro in June 2007. Within a year the program had extended into all 100 North Carolina counties.
NC LEAP strives to be the premier provider of pro bono business law services for entrepreneurs operating in the state’s low-wealth communities or employing persons who live in such areas, and to serve as a network through which the state’s business law community can work with entrepreneurs to address systemic legal barriers to economic development in North Carolina’s low-wealth communities.
“As of June 14, we have 463 clients who currently employ 910 people,” Horowitz proclaimed. “Our clients expect to employ 2,738 people within the next 12 months.”
Nearly 2000 volunteer attorney have provided 2,530 hours of pro bono support to date, a contribution that equates to $379,500 in donated services when calculated at $150 an hour.
The median client for NC LEAP is an African-American female supporting a family of 2.6 on an average annual income of $26,315. Approximately 60 percent of the program’s clients are female; 50 percent are African-American, 41 percent are Caucasian and 8 percent are Latino/Hispanic with one percent classified as other.
In addition to the aforementioned NCBA Sections, the following firms and corporations have committed gifts and pledges to the current campaign:
Bahnson, Inc.
Bell Davis & Pitt
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina
Brooks Pierce
Carruthers & Roth
DLA Piper
Duke Energy
Hutchison Law Group
K&L Gates
Kilpatrick Stockton
Lenovo
Lord Corporation
Manning Fulton
McGuireWoods
McGuire, Wood & Bissette
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough
Parker Poe
Purrington Moody Weil
Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson
Schell Bray Aycock Abel & Livingston
Smith Anderson
Smith Moore Leatherwood
The Van Winkle Law Firm
Williams Mullen
Womble Carlyle
Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton
Young Moore & Henderson
To contribute or obtain additional information, please contact NC LEAP Director Mary Horowitz by phone (919-657-1559 office; 919-397-9112 mobile) or e-mail (mhorowitz@ncbar.org).