Womble Carlyle Attorney Wins Top National Award for Pro Bono Service

(Winston-Salem, June 24, 2008 ) – Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, Lex Mundi's member firm for North Carolina, is proud to announce that attorney Craig Cannon has won the American Bar Association’s 2008 Pro Bono Publico Award.

The Pro Bono Publico Award is the ABA’s highest national honor for pro bono service. Each year, the ABA honors five individuals or institutions with this award in recognition of their exemplary service on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged.  The Pro Bono Publico Awards have been given out annually by the ABA since 1984.  Since 1984, only one other individual North Carolina attorney has received the Pro Bono Publico Award.

“I certainly never set out to win any awards for my pro bono work, so I am humbled by this honor from the American Bar Association,” Craig said. “I’m also proud to practice at a firm like Womble Carlyle, where pro bono practice is part of the firm’s culture.”

“Craig sets a standard for every lawyer in the United States.  His pro bono practice, his commercial practice, his service to the Bar, and his service to the community are the earmarks of a complete lawyer,” said Tripp Greason, Womble Carlyle’s Pro Bono Director. “We are proud to have Craig on our team and congratulate him on this well-deserved honor.”

Throughout his career at Womble Carlyle, Craig has demonstrated a dedication to the development of innovative approaches to the delivery of voluntary legal services.  Because his contributions have resulted in satisfying previously unmet needs and expanding legal services to underserved segments of the population, Craig is now recognized as a pro bono leader on the local, state, and national levels. 

Since 2005, Craig has served as the National Coordinator of the ABA’s Disaster Legal Services Program. In this capacity, he oversees efforts to provide legal assistance to disaster victims throughout the United States. When a disaster strikes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contacts Craig, who then works with a network of ABA representatives to recruit, train and coordinate volunteer attorneys willing to assist disaster victims. During the last three years, more than 75,000 victims have received pro bono legal assistance through the program.

In addition, Craig spearheaded the effort to create a pro bono project that would not only take steps toward meeting military veterans’ need for legal assistance in applying for service-connected disability benefits, but also serve as a national template for the delivery of legal assistance to veterans in need.  Craig worked with the firm’s Pro Bono Committee for several years to plan the project he would name “When Duty Calls.”  Since its rollout in May 2007, more than 200 veterans have received assistance, with more clinics scheduled in 2008 and beyond.  The When Duty Calls model has now been replicated by other firms in Washington, DC, and New York City. 

Craig also gave his time to help low-income homeowners in New Orleans who were affected by Hurricane Katrina.  After the tragedy in New Orleans, Womble Carlyle attorneys worked with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services to help affected homeowners clear title and claim ownership to property they inherited that was damaged or destroyed in the hurricane and subsequent flooding. Obtaining clear proof of ownership allowed these victims to apply for federal assistance, state recovery grants, insurance, and loans to rebuild and recover their property.

Craig will receive the Pro Bono Publico Award at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in New York City on August 11, 2008.

According to the ABA, “The Pro Bono Publico Awards program seeks to identify and honor individual lawyers and small and large law firms, government attorney offices, corporate law departments and other institutions in the legal profession that have enhanced the human dignity of others by improving or delivering volunteer legal services to our nation’s poor and disadvantaged. These services are of critical importance to the increasing number of people in this country living in a state of poverty who are in need of legal representation to improve their lives.”

Craig began his career in the firm’s Winston-Salem office and recently moved to the firm’s Raleigh office, where he practices in the Business Litigation Practice Group.

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC is Lex Mundi's member firm for North Carolina.  Founded in 1876, Womble Carlyle is a full-service business law firm with more than 500 attorneys in 11 offices located in Atlanta, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Washington, DC; Tysons Corner, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; and Wilmington, Delaware.  Serving clients nationally and globally, it is a top law firm for companies doing business in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states.  Womble Carlyle is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund Corporate Leadership Award, making it the first law firm ever to receive the highest honor given to a business organization in recognition of its support of the Fund and its 45 member educational institutions.  For more information, please visit http://www.wcsr.com/.

###