黑料不打烊 Law students pitched the idea of a mobile law clinic that could assist residents of underserved communities as part of a contest held this fall to support the Innovation Lab at Legal Aid of North Carolina.
It was a question posed by the : 鈥淗ow might we empower North Carolinians to better understand their legal issues and identify potential solutions for themselves?鈥
For 黑料不打烊 Law students who took part this fall in the , while there were many possible answers, the one they chose to present relied on four tires. It also had a catchy name 鈥 Esquires on Tires.
Jordon Inzerillo L鈥24, Kirsten Tildon L鈥24, Stephanie Auth L鈥24, and Chuom聽Prak L鈥24聽participated in the annual competition co-hosted by Duke Center on Law & Tech and North Carolina Central University Technology Law and Policy Center.
Sponsored again by Lawyers Mutual Consulting + Services, students from three North Carolina law schools gathered on October 27 in Durham where a panel of judges awarded prizes, and select teams would be eligible for financial support, mentoring, or resources to further develop concepts.
鈥淛ordon came up with the pun,鈥 Prak said.聽鈥溾楨squires on Tires鈥 envisioned a mobile clinic, a mobile bus if you will, for Legal Aid of NC to go directly to folks in rural and urban North Carolina.聽It would be headed by at least one lawyer but mostly run and staffed as a rapid response unit for areas with the direst needs.鈥
Their presentation considered local support infrastructure, liaison, and partnership building; educational programs for partner organizations; and social media ambassadors to raise awareness of the resource.
鈥淥ur idea included marketing and advertising for 鈥楨squires on Tires,鈥欌 Prak said. 鈥淎mbassadors would amplify the message of Legal Aid via social media campaigns that targeted primarily lawyers with videos on common problems facing Legal Aid clients such as domestic abuse, restraining orders, and housing issues.鈥
It was the second year that Prak and Tildon entered the competition at the encouragement of Associate Professor John Flynn, director of 黑料不打烊 Law鈥檚 Small Business & Entrepreneurship Clinic.
The top prize for the 2023 contest was awarded to a team comprised of students from NC Central and Duke Law.
And while the 黑料不打烊 Law teammates didn鈥檛 take home the gold, to their pleasant surprise, they learned later that Legal Aid is working to establish a mobile clinic. Students have already discussed the possibility of helping with community outreach and are working with a faculty member to explore the possibility of an independent study.
鈥淪ure, we would have loved to win the competition,鈥 Prak said.聽鈥淪till, Steve Jobs once said that 鈥榠deas are worth nothing unless executed.鈥 We liked our idea and wanted to see it in real life, so the team reached out to Legal Aid. We were delighted to learn that they had recently bought a bus and were planning a rapid response, deployable, mobile clinic for the rural eastern counties of North Carolina.
鈥淣aturally, we jumped on board and hope to work on聽the mobile legal clinic this term.鈥