The Charlotte Triage pro bono partnership marked its seventh anniversary on Sept. 18, 2025, with CLE training sessions, a networking reception and awards honoring outstanding contributions by legal professionals in the community.
Charlotte Triage supports Legal Aid of North Carolina-Charlotte, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, Safe Alliance and the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center by outsourcing work to private practice lawyers and in-house counsel to address critical legal needs for vulnerable community members. Pro bono leaders from McGuireWoods, Bank of America, Duke Energy, Moore & Van Allen and Wells Fargo launched the initiative in 2018.
Sponsoring law firm offices hosted training sessions and workshops on housing eviction defense, criminal record expunctions, driver’s license restorations, healthcare enrollment, consumer advocacy, special immigrant juvenile cases, and assistance for domestic violence survivors.
At the reception, held at the Grand Bohemian, Charlotte Triage presented the Champion of the Year Award to Patrick Doerr of Winston & Strawn for his work in criminal record expunctions and Brian Soja of LPL Financial received the Volunteer of the Year Award for his efforts to assist domestic violence survivors.
“This extraordinary collaboration between law firms, corporate legal departments and legal aid organizations makes a real difference in our community,” said counsel Angie Zimmern, McGuireWoods’ pro bono director and a member of the Charlotte Triage task force. “We want to thank the growing number of volunteers who step up to continue this important work and expand the reach of legal aid.”
Since its inception, Charlotte Triage has earned national and statewide honors for exemplary pro bono service. The Pro Bono Institute presented Charlotte Triage with the 2020 Corporate Pro Bono Award, which recognizes innovative partnerships between law firms, in-house legal departments and public interest organizations. The North Carolina Bar Association honored Charlotte Triage with its Outstanding Pro Bono Collaborative Service Award in 2020.