The Summit on Civil Access to Justice in North Carolina, a historic gathering of stakeholders in the state's judicial system, will take place on Friday, Oct. 12.

The event is being sponsored by the N.C. Equal Access to Justice Commission under the leadership of its chair, Chief Justice Sarah Parker of the N.C. Supreme Court, and the North Carolina Bar Association. It will take place at One Eleven Place, located at 111 Realtor's Way in Cary between the N.C. Bar Center and Harrison Avenue, just off the Weston Parkway.

Registration, which is free, will begin at 9 a.m. The summit will start at 9:30 and conclude at 3:30. A virtual "Who's Who" of speakers and discussion leaders are scheduled to participate, including keynote speaker Gene Nichol, former dean of the University of North Carolina School of Law who now serves as president of The College of William & Mary.

The NCBA, which was instrumental in the establishment of the Equal Access to Justice Commission in 2005, has also assumed a prominent role in the planning and promotion of the summit. In conjunction with its ongoing 4ALL project, the signature initiative of NCBA President Janet Ward Black, the Summit on Civil Access to Justice will take an extensive look at the issues surrounding access to the state's civil justice system.

"This is an unprecedented event," Black said. "For the North Carolina Supreme Court to be having its first public summit indicates how serious the problem is. The North Carolina Bar Association is also focused on this issue this year. There is a critical shortage of lawyers to handle the cases for the poor in North Carolina, and we are calling on our members to rally to address this crisis."

Overall targets of the event are straightforward: identify problems and formulate solutions. Understandably, these matters cannot be resolved within a single day, but organizers are convinced that by bringing together a broad cross-section of thought leaders and decisionmakers, the provision of civil legal aid to the poor will be enhanced.

Speakers and invited stakeholders represent a broad spectrum of North Carolina leaders, including providers of legal services, the non-profit community, the philanthropy community, bar associations, the legal community, the business community, legislators and law schools.

Appearing on the program will be Thomas W. Lambeth, former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; Reid Calwell "Cal" Adams, immediate past chair of Legal Aid of N.C. and the NCBA Foundation's 2006 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year; Sen. Dan Clodfelter of Mecklenburg County, the leading legislative voice for the provision of legal services, and Rep. Angela Bryant of Nash and Halifax counties; George Hausen, executive director of Legal Aid of North Carolina; James Drennan, Albert Coates Professor of Public Law and Government at the UNC School of Government; and A. P. Carlton, past president of the American Bar Association.

In addition to Chief Justice Parker, the judicial branch will be represented by Judge Linda McGee of the N.C. Court of Appeals, Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Paul Jones of Judicial District 8-A Chief District Court Judge Joseph Buckner of Judicial District 15B and Todd Nuccio, trial court administrator for the 26th Judicial District.

The legal aid, law school and non-profit sectors will also be represented by Kenneth Schorr (Legal Services of Southern Piedmont), James Barrett (Pisgah Legal Services), Melinda Lawrence (N.C. Justice and Community Development Center), Greg Malhoit (NCCU School of Law), Carol Spruill (Duke Law School), Luke Largess (N.C. Legal Education Assistance Foundation) and Anita Earls (UNC Center for Civil Rights).

Speaking on behalf of the business community will be Associate General Counsel Stephen Mayo of Bank of America and Milan Pham of NC LEAP.

The event is open to the public; NCBA members and media representatives are encouraged to attend. Many from the aforementioned stakeholder groups will receive the printed invitation, which is also accessible via the adjacent link.

To attend, simply return the completed invitation or contact Michelle Cofield, director of pro bono and public service activities at the NCBA Foundation and executive director of the N.C. Equal Access to Justice Commission, via phone at 800-662-7407 (local 677-0561) or e-mail (mcofield@ncbar.org).

Members of the media interested in attending and/or providing advance coverage of the event are urged to contact Russell Rawlings, director of communications, via phone at 800-662-7407 (local/direct 919-657-1558) or e-mail (rrawlings@ncbar.org).

Why is civil access to justice critical? First, when the need for legal services impacts the daily lives of low and moderate income people, access to justice becomes an issue that affects every community of interest in our society - business organizations, the legal profession, the court system, faith-based organizations, and government and human services agencies.

Also, with more than one-third of the population in North Carolina eligible for free legal services, legal aid programs are only able to assist a small fraction of the eligible population, given the limited resources available to fund the need. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, our citizens' respect for the orderly resolution of disputes is diminished when a significant segment of our society is not able to have meaningful access to the court system.

"The number of poor people in North Carolina has gone up dramatically since 2000," Black said. "Funding for legal services has not kept up with the increase in the population. For example, the number of individuals living in poverty has gone up 35% in Raleigh, 41% in Greensboro and 26% in Winston-Salem since 2000.

"The Constitution only guarantees people a right to a lawyer if they are charged with a crime. If you are facing a child custody dispute, domestic violence, foreclosure on your home, you are on your own. Legal services such as Legal Aid provide poor people with lawyers for these critical legal issues, but they have to turn away many deserving clients because they don't have enough staff to handle the needs."

To learn more about these important matters, please refer to the NCBA's 4ALL Web site, accessible via the NCBA homepage or directly via www.nc4all.org. The site includes a link to the U.S. Census Bureau's fact-finder section, www.factfinder.census.gov, which is especially helpful in determining the poverty population in individual cities and counties.