RALEIGH – The North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center is partnering with North Carolina law firms and Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) to launch a remote legal clinic to help small businesses and nonprofits with legal needs from the impact of COVID-19.

The North Carolina Small Business/Nonprofit Initiative will match qualifying small businesses or nonprofits with 25 or fewer employees with NC firms including Alston & Bird, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Kilpatrick Townsend, Mayer Brown, McGuire Woods, Nelson Mullins, and Winston & Strawn. Pro bono lawyers will be matched to offer a free 45-minute phone or virtual legal consultation, helping these small business owners or nonprofits navigate the CARES Act, or questions related to employment, contracts, commercial leases, insurance and insolvency issues.

Small business and nonprofits can request free legal assistance through the online form located on the Pro Bono Resource Center’s website.

“In the current climate, small businesses and nonprofit groups are in need of our support. We have come together as law firms to provide our expertise and guidance to these organizations, as well as to simply provide a sounding board for them,” said Taylor Daly, Pro Bono Partner, Nelson Mullins.

“We are excited to offer this much needed legal information and advice to NC small businesses and nonprofits,” said Sylvia Novinsky, Director of the NC Pro Bono Resource Center.

“It is inspirational to see many of NC’s largest law firms harness their attorneys’ expertise to help those who might not otherwise be able to get this information. In a time of genuine uncertainty and need, we are proud to offer this program. Our hope is that this coordinated effort to connect small businesses and nonprofits to pro bono legal resources serves as a model for how we can continue to work together as a legal and business community to help each other during difficult times,” said Tamara Caldas, Pro Bono Partner, Kilpatrick Townsend.

About the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center

The NC Pro Bono Resource Center is a program of the NC Equal Access to Justice Commission, a commission of the North Carolina Supreme Court working to expand access to the civil justice system for people of low income and modest means in North Carolina. One of only a handful of similar statewide centers in the country, the Pro Bono Center has two goals: (1) to develop pro bono projects with existing stakeholders statewide; and (2) to provide support for existing pro bono activities in the state, including recruitment, training, and communication.