A Love Letter to Pro Bono: Claire O’Brien Teams Up to Make a Difference in Greensboro

February 19, 2025

Each day is like a grain of sand moving through an hourglass. Every grain may be small, but together, individual flecks begin to grow from tiny pieces into a small mountain, as the weeks, months, and years go by. At the start of every new year, you might spend time thinking about what you want that mountain to look like over the next 365 days.

Sometimes, in those reflections, one small act might come to mind – perhaps something someone has done to change your life, or something you would like to do to lift a burden for someone else. There might be a corner in your world in need of light, or a specific issue you want to help mitigate by volunteering.

Whatever it is that you hope to do this year, there is no better time than today to start.

Like individual days, small actions can grow from grains of sand into larger mountain ranges, too. Each time you choose to do something for the good of others, those acts of service become a part of your experience, and, also, a picture for others to see. Often, like beacons of light across the water, acts of service invite others not only to be moved, but also to carry the light to where it is needed.

That small acts have power to create great change is one of Claire O’Brien’s core values. O’Brien has teamed up with others in and outside her city, Greensboro, to contribute to the well-being of others in the world. By being generous with her time and talents, she is working to enhance what Greensboro has to offer, not only for residents in the city but for others in further parts of the globe.

Over the last year, O’Brien has planted trees, raised funds for a nonprofit that helps Afghan women, and partnered to end homelessness. O’Brien is also an active member of the NCBA Health Law Section and a member of the Council. She enjoys working with other attorneys across the state to be a force for good.

In living out this service-centered state of mind, O’Brien is drawing on the values close to her heart.

“It is something I get from my parents, who always made every effort to help in any small way that they could, whether it was a neighbor or a friend, or volunteering at church. And so, probably seeing that example – it created a ‘can-do’ attitude – a belief that I could help in a small way and that it was important to do so. I think I get that from them,” she said.

Since moving to Greensboro in 2020, O’Brien has become involved in several efforts to enrich her community. She joined the board for Partners Ending Homelessness (PEH), an organization that connects individuals experiencing homelessness to safe housing, and also joined the board for Greensboro Beautiful, an organization dedicated to preserving and beautifying Greensboro’s outdoor spaces. O’Brien advocates for literacy and education by supporting the Greensboro Public Library Foundation.

Her efforts extend outside the city of Greensboro: last fall, she organized a “Run for Freedom” campaign to raise funds for The Linda Norgrove Foundation, a Scottish nonprofit that supports women’s rights in Afghanistan and recently brought 19 Afghan women to Scotland to complete their medical educations.

“I kept reading about the horrible circumstances for women and girls there, and how they’ve been barred from employment and education and even going outside. And I just wanted to do something about it, knowing that I can’t solve the problem in its entirety. I asked, what can I do that’s small or that might possibly help?”

O’Brien reached out to the foundation, which suggested remote participation in the foundation’s annual fundraising run.

O’Brien, along with her sisters, planned the run and invited participants across the United States to participate by running in their home cities. One by one, friends of the O’Brien sisters signed up – each person saying “yes” to do one small thing for the good of another person. Approximately 30 individuals, not including O’Brien and her sisters, participated in the event. As a result, O’Brien and her fellow runners garnered $1,000 for the foundation.

O’Brien was thrilled to be involved in supporting The Linda Norgrove Foundation, and plans to continue those efforts. She is currently working to raise an additional $8,000 for the foundation by organizing another “Run for Freedom” in October of this year. The funds will support life-changing surgeries for 10 young Afghan girls who would otherwise not be able to afford the medical care.

Through her day-to-day actions, O’Brien illustrates that the true goal of pro bono work is to tap into what matters – to run with it and never look back.

“Do something you really care about, and you’ll be excited to spend time on it,” said O’Brien. “Don’t volunteer just for the sake of volunteering. Think about what matters to you most, and then find a way to help someone who is working on that project or come up with your own idea. But it won’t feel like work if it’s something you sincerely care about in your heart.”

Before moving back to Greensboro, O’Brien and her husband lived in Washington D.C., where she was actively involved in pro bono work in D.C.’s landlord-tenant court.

“Ending homelessness, and in the meantime helping those who are currently experiencing homelessness – these are very important issues to me. I saw that it was a problem in D.C., and tried to help through pro bono work in landlord-tenant court, given that homelessness can occur when individuals are wrongfully evicted from their homes.  I see that homelessness is a problem in Greensboro, too – and hope to help through my work with PEH,” she said.

Throughout her career, O’Brien’s experiences read like a love letter to two cities. Her experiences in North Carolina and D.C. have shaped her, and, in turn, she has had an impact in both places. O’Brien grew up in Winston-Salem and attended Wake Forest University, where she majored in history and minored in Middle Eastern studies. After college, she moved to Alexandria, Va., and worked in political polling. While there, she met her husband.

“I fell in love with D.C. and in D.C. It’s such a walkable city, there’s so much history, and it is so beautiful.” said O’Brien.

While living in the capital, she realized she wanted to become an attorney to advance her interests in justice and equality. She went to law school, she said, because she hoped to have a better understanding of the way the law works to achieve those goals.

“The more you know, the more you’re able to help. That mattered to me. I also wanted to feel confident moving through the world, and law school seemed a promising way to achieve that; my godfather is an attorney, and my grandfather was a judge. I saw how they seem to understand the way things worked, and I knew that being an attorney would help me to understand, too.”

O’Brien was accepted into the University of North Carolina School of Law and returned to North Carolina to earn her degree. After graduating from law school, she moved back to D.C. and joined Covington & Burling LLP, and later served as a law clerk for Judge Liam O’Grady in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

She was grateful to practice law in D.C., and at the same time, North Carolina always had a special place in her heart. After three years in D.C., she and her husband began to think about moving back to North Carolina.

“We really loved it in D.C. But then when the time came, we wanted to start a family, we wanted to buy a house, and all of those things seemed not necessarily unattainable in D.C., but perhaps more difficult there than they would be at home,” said O’Brien, whose parents are based in Winston-Salem.

“And Brooks Pierce seemed like the best fit, not only because of the substance of what they offered – I could continue in a regulatory practice – but especially because of the people who I met and really liked there, including some of my UNC classmates.”

As a health law attorney, O’Brien enjoys the problem-solving nature of her area of focus. Specifically, she likes being able to resolve an issue as part of a team.

“Regulatory work can be like puzzle solving,” said O’Brien. “I enjoy that aspect of it.  Oftentimes, all the parties involved in the matter are working together to figure an issue out because the law can be so complex. What everybody’s trying to do is understand the law and comply with it. I like that collaborative aspect of my practice.

“We do a lot of prospective compliance, which means helping clients make sure that they follow the relevant law, whether it’s HIPAA, the Anti-Kickback Statute, Stark Law, or any of the other myriad health care-related laws and regulations. We help clients develop appropriate policies and ensure those policies are followed. Then, in the event of deviation from the policies, we help them understand the best steps to remediate.”

One of her favorite aspects of the health care practice is the opportunity to work directly with physicians, including representation on matters involving the North Carolina Medical Board. Helping physicians is something she is glad to do, in part because it is a field she is familiar with: her parents are physicians (emergency medicine and internal medicine).

O’Brien’s parents are passionate about patient care and giving back through volunteer work. Like them, she does what she can to serve others.

“I try to keep in mind that even a small contribution, if everyone makes one, can make a big difference,” she said.

Grains of sand may be small, but when placed side by side, they form a mighty and majestic shore, a haven for all to see.

O’Brien cares about the people who live in her community, and she also cares about the natural beauty present there. Beyond admiring the lovely spaces in her city, she has gone one step further: she works to preserve and enhance them.

“We have a magnificent Arboretum, and we have gardens all throughout Greensboro that Greensboro Beautiful contributes to maintaining, in conjunction with the city of Greensboro. Planting trees is one of our best annual events, but that’s not all that the organization does. It’s all about preserving and uplifting the natural beauty of our city. I love being part of that organization, planting trees, cleaning up litter and keeping our city beautiful for everyone now and for the future.”

Last October, O’Brien was one of a team of Greensboro Beautiful volunteers who planted 195 trees on the campus of Bennett College, a liberal arts college that was established 150 years ago.

The event underscored the importance of each individual’s contribution to a cause, O’Brien explained: “Imagine how difficult it would be for one person to plant 195 trees. But thanks to the willingness of so many individuals in Greensboro to come together on a Saturday morning and help, we achieved that goal in a matter of hours – with the result that generations of Greensboro residents and Bennett College students will enjoy a revitalized green space. That’s the kind of result that invigorates me and makes me feel connected to this community.”

Beyond her volunteer work in her community, O’Brien serves on the NCBA Health Law Council. She previously served as the Young Lawyers Division Communications Chair from 2020-2022. In this role, she helped to organize the YLD writing competition for two consecutive years. One of the winners of the competition, Natalia Talbot, wrote about the topic of mental health in the law, another significant issue in the profession and in the world today.

O’Brien is grateful for each person she has met through being an NCBA member.

“It is very valuable to me from a connection-building perspective,” she said. “People knock on Zoom, and it’s true that it’s sometimes nicer to meet in person. But for me, remote interaction with the NCBA has been an excellent way to meet people who I might not otherwise have the chance to know, and to have these meetings where we all get together and we talk about different things, whether it’s the upcoming Health Law Section CLE or something else. I find real value in that.”

In looking back on how she became involved with the NCBA, she is grateful to one person in particular, Collins Saint, who first recommended that O’Brien step into a volunteer role with the YLD.

“I appreciated that idea just so I could get to know more people and feel more connected, especially during that particular time when everything was so disconnected during the peak of COVID,” said O’Brien.

She has experienced what it is like to engage with others who serve in the profession and their communities, and she wants to encourage others to volunteer toward these goals in 2025.

“Being involved in various aspects of the Greensboro community, whether it be Partners Ending Homelessness or Greensboro Beautiful, or even just being a patron of the library and going to the library and knowing the faces there when I check out my books – those experiences make me feel like I am a part of this community, committed to this community, and eager to make it as great as it possibly can be in all of the small ways.”

As much as O’Brien has done to improve her corner of the world, she is quiet about her accomplishments.

“My interests are my interests – homelessness, women’s rights, nature, books – but there are many other causes that other people are interested in, whether it be music, education, what have you. If everybody follows their own interest and tries to help a little bit, I believe we can all make the world a better place.”

Like grains of sand that, together, shape a shoreline, small acts, when they are compounded, are beautifully grand.

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Jessica Junqueira is communications manager for the North Carolina Bar Association.

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