Zack Kaplan sums up his inspiration for civil rights law in one word: Leandro. It’s long-running litigation that seeks to enforce the constitutional right to a sound basic education in North Carolina. As a fifth-grade teacher, Zack read frequently about the case. “I didn't even know that there was a constitutional right to a free public education under our North Carolina constitution. And the more I dug into it, the more it really – that mission and that purpose – really resonated with me,” he tells host Amber Nimocks. Zack eventually left teaching to become a lawyer, today focusing on state and constitutional claims, prison and police misconduct, and appellate litigation at Ballew Puryear. He is also the program chair of "Overcoming Immunity: Pro Tips for Success in Civil Rights Litigation," a CLE scheduled for January 29 at NCAJ headquarters in Raleigh. He invites all lawyers to attend because he believes that everyone in NCAJ advocates for marginalized people going up against an institutional power. “We're hoping that, in a small way, this will be useful in those types of claims.” Register here.
🎙️ Featured Guest 🎙️
Name: Zack Kaplan
Connect: LinkedIn
💡 Episode Highlights 💡
[02:21] Teacher to Lawyer: Zack spent three years as a fifth-grade teacher in East Durham before attending law school, an experience he describes as potentially his "best and most challenging job" of his career.
[03:16] Civil Rights Foundation: As an undergrad at UNC Chapel Hill, Zack served as community organizer in historically Black communities, where he came to understand public education as a bedrock to building a multiracial democracy.
[10:21] Standing Up for the Little Guy: Zack believes that he and everybody at NCAJ share a fundamental commitment to stand up for the “little guy.”
[18:24] Law School Outreach Committee: As co-chair of NCAJ's Law School Outreach Committee, Zack is motivated to show students a variety of career paths.
[23:02] “Struck by Lightning”: Zack describes being in the “right place, right time” to briefly clerk for Judge James Wynn, a relationship that led to connecting with other critical mentors.
[26:07] NCAJ NEXT: “It was really impactful for me on several levels,” Zack says of the NCAJ NEXT fellowship program.
[30:54] Civil Rights CLE: The January 29 CLE is designed to benefit all attorneys, even those who aren’t civil rights practitioners, because the work involves helping any marginalized person go up against larger institutional power.
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Voices of NCAJ features members of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice talking about what it means to be a trial lawyer, what it takes to be great at the practice of law and how being a part of NCAJ enriches their lives and their careers.
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Welcome to Voices of NCAJ.
Speaker:We're talking to members of the North
Carolina Advocates for Justice about what
Speaker:it means to be a trial lawyer, what it
takes to be great at the practice of law,
Speaker:and how being a part of NCAJ
enriches their lives and careers.
Speaker:Produced and powered by LawPods.
Speaker:Welcome everyone to Voices of NCAJ,
Speaker:the podcast for the North Carolina
Advocates for Justice. I am Amber Nimocks,
Speaker:your host and director of
external affairs for NCAJ.
Speaker:Before we get started,
Speaker:I'd like to thank our circle of leadership
members for supporting NCAJ's mission
Speaker:and this podcast. If
you're watching on YouTube,
Speaker:you can see a list of Circle of Leadership
firms at the end of the podcast.
Speaker:To find out how your firm can join
the circle, go to ncaj.com/circle.
Speaker:My guest today is Zack Kaplan.
Speaker:He's an associate attorney at the
Raleigh Firm of Ballew Puryear,
Speaker:where his practice focuses on state
and federal constitutional claims,
Speaker:police and prison misconduct,
and appellate litigation.
Speaker:He is also co-chair of NCAJ's
Law School Outreach Committee and
Speaker:program co-chair of the
CLE, Overcoming Immunity:
Speaker:Pro Tips for Success in
Civil Rights Litigation.
Speaker:That program is coming up on
January 29 at NCAJ headquarters in
Speaker:Raleigh.
And if you want to attend,
Speaker:you can register for it or any of the
other terrific CLEs we have coming up in
Speaker:January and February at ncaj.com/events.
Speaker:Zack, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker:Thank you very much. Amber, happy New
Year. And I'm a longtime listener,
Speaker:first time caller, as they say,
Speaker:so I'm excited to chat a bit and to talk
specifically about our upcoming CLE.
Speaker:Great. Well, I'm so glad to know you
listened to the podcast. That's awesome.
Speaker:So before we get into the CLE,
Speaker:I'd love to know a little bit about you.
Speaker:I know that you're one
of our NEXT fellows,
Speaker:so somewhat familiar
with you and your bio.
Speaker:And I know that lawyer
was not your first career.
Speaker:You spent some time in the classroom
before you headed to law school.
Speaker:What influenced your decision
to become a teacher first?
Speaker:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker:I was a fifth grade teacher at a public
school in East Durham for three years in
Speaker:between college and when I went to
law school and then became a lawyer.
Speaker:And I loved it. In a
lot of ways, I miss it.
Speaker:And I think that it will
end up being, in some ways,
Speaker:my best and most challenging
job of my career I
Speaker:anticipate. But yeah, in
terms of how I got into it,
Speaker:it was really while I was in college,
Speaker:I went to UNC Chapel Hill
and my scholarship program
Speaker:required all of the students
to do between 10 and 15
Speaker:hours a week of work at a
local community partner.
Speaker:And so I served for all four of
my years as a sort of community
Speaker:organizer in two different historically
black communities in Chapel Hill in the
Speaker:north side in Rogers Road,
Speaker:the neighborhoods are called. And part
of my work there was being a tutor for
Speaker:elementary school students
and middle school students.
Speaker:And over the course of my years there,
Speaker:I kind of had a practical
insight and then a more
Speaker:theoretical insight.
Speaker:The practical insight was that I just
loved working with young people and
Speaker:engaging with students.
Speaker:And I found that to be a really
challenging, like I said,
Speaker:but enjoyable and meaningful way
to spend my time and my energy.
Speaker:And so I knew that I was drawn
to the classroom for that reason.
Speaker:But then sort of on a
more theoretical level,
Speaker:I really came to
understand public education
Speaker:as a bedrock,
Speaker:this kind of foundational principle
for building a multiracial democracy.
Speaker:And I knew that I wanted to
do work that had that sort of
Speaker:civil rights bend.
Speaker:And so I had in the back of my
mind that one day I might more
Speaker:look into the policy
world or the law world,
Speaker:but at least at the
beginning of my career,
Speaker:I knew that I didn't want to get
into policy or get into law or
Speaker:governance or anything like that without
having first had some significant
Speaker:classroom experience and kind
of that boots on the ground,
Speaker:ground level experience. Like I said,
I really enjoyed my time as a teacher.
Speaker:I miss it today. Working
with adults is great,
Speaker:but it's in a lot of ways less exciting
and less dynamic than working with 10
Speaker:year olds every day.
Speaker:And I hope sometime a little bit further
down the road in my career to get back
Speaker:into the teaching world
one way or another.
Speaker:That's such a great age, that
late elementary school age,
Speaker:you can really see their
brains start to sort of pop.
Speaker:That's right. And the school that I
taught at was actually K through eight.
Speaker:And so we were really fifth grade
with really this transition year where
Speaker:you were on the older side of elementary
school and on the younger side of
Speaker:middle school.
Speaker:And we definitely saw a lot of
transition in that fifth grade year.
Speaker:And actually, I live in Durham still,
Speaker:and I've lived there for a
little over 10 years now.
Speaker:And so I still run into former students
of mine all the time. They are now,
Speaker:they have graduated from high school
and most of them are college age.
Speaker:So if they still live or work
around town, every once in a while,
Speaker:I'll hear a Mr. Kaplan and there's only
a select group of people that call me
Speaker:Mr. Kaplan. So I know that it must be one.
Speaker:Of them. Oh, that's great. That's great.
Speaker:So you knew you wanted to
do something policy related,
Speaker:but was there a certain circumstance
or a certain event that moved you
Speaker:towards the legal profession?
Speaker:As with any big kind of
life or career transition,
Speaker:there's a lot of kind of factors
that went into it and the
Speaker:timing and everything. But honestly,
Speaker:I would say if I had to
give a one word answer,
Speaker:it would be Leandro,
Speaker:which is the major education
litigation in North Carolina that's
Speaker:been going on for well over 30 years
now, or almost 30 years now, I suppose,
Speaker:and is a long running
lawsuit where a group of
Speaker:marginalized students and families
or students and families from
Speaker:marginalized school districts and
counties are seeking to enforce their
Speaker:constitutional right to a sound basic
education against the state under the
Speaker:provision involving education
in our Carolina Constitution.
Speaker:And I would say it was about my
second year in the classroom when I
Speaker:kind of had my feet on the ground enough
and knew my bearings enough to start
Speaker:learning more about the education
law and policy world. And Leandro was
Speaker:something that kept on coming
up. I would read articles,
Speaker:I would see people speaking about it,
Speaker:I would see in the news occasionally if
there was something going on with the
Speaker:litigation.
Speaker:And I was just exceptionally
curious about what this
Speaker:was.
Speaker:And I didn't even know that there was
a constitutional right to a free public
Speaker:education under our North
Carolina constitution.
Speaker:And the more I dug into
it, the more it really,
Speaker:that mission and that purpose
really resonated with me.
Speaker:And I started talking to some folks
who were either involved in advocacy or
Speaker:involved in the litigation itself, and
of course, many of them were lawyers.
Speaker:And so I began to see a
clearer pathway towards,
Speaker:okay,
Speaker:maybe this is a different angle at
which I can kind of approach this same
Speaker:civil rights issue.
Speaker:And so how you began to be drawn
towards civil rights as a focus
Speaker:for your practice?
Speaker:Yeah, that was definitely one of
the elements. It's interesting.
Speaker:And we just finished up with the holiday
season and now moving into the new
Speaker:year.
Speaker:So it's a perfect time to kind
of reflect on kind of the path
Speaker:behind and the path ahead. And
like so many people, I really,
Speaker:when I look back at my career
path in some ways, my life,
Speaker:there's this mysterious alchemy
to it in a lot of ways where
Speaker:on the one hand you can see
certain elements very clearly that
Speaker:one led to two, led to three, and
now I'm here. But on the other hand,
Speaker:there's also some instances of
right time and right place and
Speaker:kind of a sense of the
pieces falling into place.
Speaker:And so when I think about my
trajectory becoming a civil
Speaker:rights lawyer, it's a little bit of that.
Speaker:There are definitely some elements
that stand out in my experience in the
Speaker:classroom and my experience as a community
organizer before the classroom is
Speaker:definitely one of them.
I also think that from
Speaker:a very early age,
Speaker:there were a couple of things that
kind of pointed me in that direction.
Speaker:One is faith.
Speaker:I am Jewish and one of
the kind of key pillars or
Speaker:principles in Judaism,
it's called Tikkun Olam,
Speaker:and it means repairing the world.
And it kind of, to me at least,
Speaker:it means that everybody
has an obligation to do
Speaker:what they can to improve their community.
Speaker:It's not just about volunteering,
Speaker:picking up trash on the side
of the road once a year,
Speaker:although that can be
one way of contributing.
Speaker:It's about really finding
what your lane is,
Speaker:that kind of intersection of your passion
and your skills and seeing what you
Speaker:can do to contribute in your community.
Speaker:And so that was always a part of
my very much encouraged part of my
Speaker:upbringing, trying to find that angle.
And another thing that I think
Speaker:maybe everybody in NCAJ
will have in common is
Speaker:I just have a sort of
intrinsic commitment to
Speaker:standing up for the little guy.
Speaker:I just have always had a sense of
injustice and things that appear fair or
Speaker:unfair. I'm also a middle child,
so that might play into it as well.
Speaker:But like I said, I think in some
ways everybody in NCAJ is like that.
Speaker:I don't know if I've met anybody in our
organization who doesn't feel some type
Speaker:of way about somebody who
for one reason or another is
Speaker:marginalized,
Speaker:going up against some
big institutional power.
Speaker:And so in that way, I
think really everybody,
Speaker:obviously the folks in the
civil rights section like me,
Speaker:we have particular types of constitutional
rights that we're often litigating in
Speaker:Section 1983 and all
that. But more broadly,
Speaker:I really think that everybody in NCAJ is
a civil rights lawyer. And I mentioned
Speaker:that I listened to the podcast.
I recently listened, for example,
Speaker:to your episode with Karma Henson,
Speaker:and I would challenge anybody
to listen to Karma talk
Speaker:about her work in nursing home
litigation and say that she is
Speaker:not a civil rights lawyer or a
civil rights advocate. I mean,
Speaker:that work is not Section
: Speaker:but that to me, writ large, that's what
civil rights litigation is all about.
Speaker:And so there's been
elements of all of that,
Speaker:including my time as a teacher that
have kind of brought me to where I am.
Speaker:Yeah. That is interesting to hear you
say because when I try to tell people,
Speaker:we were talking before we
got onto the recording about
Speaker:trying to explain to my son what I do,
Speaker:it's not until you become sort
of older and begin to understand
Speaker:the civil justice system as you become
more sophisticated in your understanding
Speaker:that you do realize that fighting on
behalf of the individual against the
Speaker:system, whether or not it is
Speaker:in a traditionally understood civil
rights way or just in human rights
Speaker:way, just for justice for the
individual against who has been wronged,
Speaker:who has had their rights violated,
Speaker:that is the bedrock of what we do.
Speaker:That's pretty much we have just come
through the holidays and you go to parties
Speaker:and be, "What do you do?
Speaker:" So I'm the communications director for
this group of people and this group of
Speaker:people does this. And when you put
it that way, people go, "Huh, okay.
Speaker:All right.".
Speaker:Yeah. And I think that, like I said,
Speaker:writ large,
Speaker:it's about standing up
for and advocating for the
Speaker:little person, the David
versus the Goliath, right?
Speaker:The marginalized person or community
against this system of power,
Speaker:whether it's the state, an insurance
company, a police force, a jail,
Speaker:an employer, the government.
And something that I have found,
Speaker:you mentioned our work with the
law school outreach committee,
Speaker:something that I found through
connecting with law students,
Speaker:and that is true of my own experience,
Speaker:is that there's such a pull now
more than ever in law schools,
Speaker:there's such a pull towards big law,
Speaker:towards large corporate
insurance defense law firms that
Speaker:anybody who finds their
way into this profession,
Speaker:it's highly unlikely that they just
kind of stumbled their way into it.
Speaker:So it tends to really draw people who,
Speaker:like Karma or like Sam, who I
know you had on recently, I mean,
Speaker:like so many others, and
my colleagues at NCAJ NEXT,
Speaker:it tends to draw in people
who really have some type of
Speaker:chip on their shoulder about advocating
for folks who have been marginalized and
Speaker:kind of standing up to some
of that institutional power.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:that's one of our challenges as an
organization at the law school level
Speaker:is trying to make sure that
we educate and spread the
Speaker:word about the fact because
you're looking law school and
Speaker:you've just incurred a great deal of debt.
Speaker:And so often the path is that
you feel like you have to go
Speaker:work for insurance or as an
insurance defense litigator in
Speaker:order to do that. And you don't even ...
Speaker:Presenting law students with
the option of going into
Speaker:plaintiff's work first and
making sure they know that that's
Speaker:even an option is really important.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Because big law is out there.
Speaker:It's not only out there,
Speaker:it is increasingly
recruiting and signing up
Speaker:students earlier and earlier and earlier
in your law school career, including,
Speaker:by the way, like now,
Speaker:like January of your 1L year,
Speaker:your first year of law school.
Speaker:I was in touch in the last couple of
weeks with law students at a couple of
Speaker:different North Carolina law schools
who are in the middle of interviews,
Speaker:not only for positions this coming summer,
Speaker:but for the summer of 2027, right?
Speaker:The summer in between their second
and third year of law school,
Speaker:that will then turn
into return job offers.
Speaker:And then they're set for when they
graduate in the spring of: Speaker:And that once you ... Of course,
Speaker:it's always possible to make a pivot if
you start to go down that path and then
Speaker:change your mind.
Speaker:But it is much harder to do that
as opposed to deciding now when
Speaker:you're at this crucial fork in the road.
As you can tell,
Speaker:this is kind of a pedestal
that I like to stand on,
Speaker:but I really do think that it's
important to kind of spread the word
Speaker:among law students at our
North Carolina law schools,
Speaker:that this is a viable career path.
Speaker:You can do work that aligns with your
values and you can make enough money
Speaker:to pay your bills because often it is
presented as a total dichotomy where
Speaker:you can either go into big law and of
course you don't have to worry as much on
Speaker:the finance side. You'll be able to
pay your law school loans and all that,
Speaker:and you can do work that maybe you
have some interest in one type of
Speaker:that law or another,
Speaker:but generally you're probably less
likely to be super passionate about that,
Speaker:or you can go into maybe
a government position or a
Speaker:nonprofit position or become a public
defender or an assistant district attorney
Speaker:or something and do more work
that you're passionate about,
Speaker:but at the expense of paying the bills.
And for people
Speaker:who are not independently wealthy,
Speaker:they don't have maybe other lawyers
in their family and they aren't
Speaker:super aware of the different
career paths that are out there,
Speaker:that's a really daunting decision
to have to make so early on.
Speaker:And so I do think that now more than
ever it is important for folks in
Speaker:NCAJ in formal ways, but also in informal
ways to make some of those mentor,
Speaker:mentee connections with law
school students and kind
of show them that there's
Speaker:this middle path out there.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. Well,
Speaker:we're definitely thankful
for all of the work that
Speaker:you've been doing on that front as
co-chair of the Law School Outreach
Speaker:Committee. And we've boosted
our efforts there a lot,
Speaker:but I think that we've got to
continue to be out there and just be
Speaker:present. There's so many
people who don't even know ...
Speaker:Even as far into your second
or third year in law school,
Speaker:they don't even have a ...
Speaker:Someplace like Campbell would be an
exception where they have a very active
Speaker:trial lawyer or their
advocacy program is so huge.
Speaker:But there are a lot of schools where
understanding really what a plaintiff's
Speaker:attorney is is not ... We're not
competing as well as we should be.
Speaker:No. And in fact,
Speaker:that was my experience and that was the
exact reason why I was interested in
Speaker:joining the law school outreach
committee in the first place.
Speaker:I guess a year and a half ago now when
it was our first time doing that with the
Speaker:new lawyers division,
Speaker:this is only our second school year
with the law school outreach committee.
Speaker:So I went to Duke for law
school, stayed around in Durham,
Speaker:although I will note for the record that
I am a Tarheel. I had a great, really,
Speaker:really great experience at Duke Law,
Speaker:but that experience had
absolutely or basically no
Speaker:knowledge or understanding or instruction
about the fact that this career path
Speaker:was out there,
Speaker:that you could go to a smaller plaintiff's
civil rights oriented law firm.
Speaker:And I mentioned that in touch
with a lot of law students,
Speaker:I am proud to say that Duke Law,
Speaker:actually I was just in touch over the
holidays with a student who is starting up
Speaker:a plaintiff's law association at Duke.
And so to your point,
Speaker:those sorts of organizations have been
established for many years at places like
Speaker:Campbell. I think they're
similar at UNC Law,
Speaker:Elon and NC Central, for example, a civil
rights society at Central that's very,
Speaker:very active.
Speaker:But even in some of the schools that
are North Carolina law schools that are
Speaker:less well known for placing folks in
that career path are starting to get the
Speaker:word out a little bit. So
I'm excited about that.
Speaker:Yeah. Well, we will keep at it with
you for ... And hopefully we can ...
Speaker:I read somewhere that law school
applications are through the roof this
Speaker:year. There's like a bumper crop,
Speaker:so there's going to be more
and more ... I don't know.
Speaker:I think that was a nationwide
statistic that I read,
Speaker:but I'm sure that it will be
spread throughout the country.
Speaker:And so there's even more folks
we can target for getting
Speaker:into the profession.
Speaker:That's right. We will
never, as smaller firms,
Speaker:and even as an NCAJ organization
or kind of coalition,
Speaker:we will never have the
exact same approach or exact
Speaker:same sort of infrastructure that some
of the big law firms have in their on
Speaker:campus interviews and
recruitment and stuff like that.
Speaker:But I Think that actually
makes the mentorship
Speaker:piece even more important,
Speaker:that we don't have as much of that
infrastructure to rely on. And again,
Speaker:going back to my experience,
Speaker:I really only became aware
that this career path
Speaker:was out there and was viable and was
something that would really align with my
Speaker:values and the work that I want to be
doing because I had the great privilege
Speaker:and fortune of clerking for some judges
who were former plaintiff's lawyers,
Speaker:and they were the ones who kind
of steered me in that direction.
Speaker:And so it was a direct result of that
mentorship and that kind of guidance that
Speaker:I didn't get in law school,
Speaker:but that hopefully more and more
people will be getting in law school.
Speaker:That's right, because you were
clerked for Justice Robin Hudson,
Speaker:who was a longtime member of NCHA.
Speaker:That's right. Before it was
NCHA even. Yep, that's right.
Speaker:Yes, yes. She was a longtime member
of the Academy of Trial Lawyers.
Speaker:I'm sure that she pointed
you in our direction.
Speaker:She did. Yeah, she absolutely did.
Speaker:She was largely a workers' comp attorney
Speaker:before she was on the bench,
when she was in private practice.
Speaker:And then of course,
Speaker:as any of our workers' comp
practitioners and NCHA know,
Speaker:use that experience once
she was on the bench,
Speaker:she was always the one that when she was
on the court of appeals that the panel
Speaker:turned to and when she was on the Supreme
Court that the rest of the justices
Speaker:turned to for a lot of not
just workers' comp issues,
Speaker:but plaintiff's issues generally.
Speaker:You will very often find her name at
the top of a lot of those opinions,
Speaker:medical malpractice opinions,
workers' comp opinions,
Speaker:and really even civil rights opinions
writ broadly. I mean, gerrymandering,
Speaker:the most recently Andrew opinion Justice
Hudson authored. And so selfishly,
Speaker:she had a huge impact on my career,
but more importantly than that,
Speaker:she's also had a really big impact
on the plaintiff's bar and on
Speaker:the jurisprudence and civil
rights in North Carolina.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then you also clerked for
Judge James Wynn on the US Court of
Speaker:Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Speaker:That's right. That was another
... Both of those opportunities,
Speaker:kind of going back to the serendipity
point earlier where I kind of
Speaker:felt like I was struck by
lightning where right place,
Speaker:right time with Judge Wynn in particular,
Speaker:I clerked for him briefly while
one of his other clerks was out
Speaker:on parental leave and he
knew Justice Hudson and
Speaker:this was relatively shortly after
my time with Justice Hudson.
Speaker:And so that relationship kind of made
the connection from my time with Judge
Speaker:Wynn and very, very
similarly to Justice Hudson.
Speaker:He was a plaintiff's lawyer
out in Eastern North Carolina.
Speaker:He had a law firm with Congressman
Butterfield and a few other folks out
Speaker:there,
Speaker:and they did a lot of
whatever came in the door,
Speaker:whether it was workers' comp, whether
it was kind of more commercial stuff,
Speaker:lots of smaller claims and
working their way up. And then
Speaker:when he was on the bench, and he's of
course still on the federal bench now,
Speaker:has had a huge impact when he was in the
North Carolina appellate courts and on
Speaker:the Fourth Circuit in state and
then federal civil rights issues.
Speaker:So I have been very,
Speaker:very fortunate over the last several
years to have some really incredible
Speaker:mentors who not only told me
about, "Hey, this is what NCAJ is,
Speaker:this is what being a
plaintiff's lawyer is,
Speaker:is what being a civil rights lawyer is,
Speaker:" but also had more personalized
encouragement where they
Speaker:got to know me enough to say,
Speaker:"I really think that you should consider
this and let me connect you with a few
Speaker:folks you might want to talk to about it.
Speaker:" So I just think that I had my
own examples in my own life and
Speaker:career of how valuable that mentorship is.
And so that's one of the reasons why
Speaker:I love being able to connect law
students with people in NCAJ or judges or
Speaker:clerks or other folks who can kind of
provide some of that guidance for them.
Speaker:And now you're with a firm which
has a couple of really great
Speaker:NCAJ members at the top as well.
Speaker:That's right. Yeah.
Speaker:Matt Ballou and PJ Perier are our founding
partners here at the firm and they
Speaker:are both NCAJ members.
Speaker:Matt has been an NCAJ member
and leader for at least 15
Speaker:years now. And I have two
co-associates now, Trent Turk,
Speaker:who was in the class of 2025
Speaker:cohort of NCAJ NEXT and Catherine
Copeland who recently wrapped
Speaker:up her clerkship with Justice Riggs,
Speaker:who if we do have a
future NCAJ new cohort,
Speaker:we will definitely be
encouraging her to join as well.
Speaker:So hopefully we'll do a sweep
with the associates there.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. For 2026,
Speaker:we're going to do the NEXT Steps program,
Speaker:which will be sort of a recap for all
of the fellows who've come through the
Speaker:past few years. But for 2027,
Speaker:I'm sure we'll be doing it again because
it's been such a tremendous success for
Speaker:us. We've had such great folks come
through and so many of you have
Speaker:stepped into tremendous leadership
roles in the organization that we've
Speaker:just, it's been NEXT has
been just a great program.
Speaker:I know for me, it was really
impactful on several levels.
Speaker:Obviously connecting with my friends
and colleagues who are in our cohort and
Speaker:kind of having that
group of people who now,
Speaker:even though it's been two years since
we were in the program together,
Speaker:we can still be in touch and still
bounce ideas off of each other. Plus the
Speaker:mentorship piece with folks
in NCAJ who have been in NCAJ
Speaker:for a while.
Speaker:David Henson was my NCHA NEXT
mentor and I owe a whole lot to him
Speaker:in terms of being able to navigate this
early stage of my career in a lot of
Speaker:ways.
Speaker:And then just getting to know the
history of the organization and the
Speaker:mission of the organization,
Speaker:it's something that it sounds
really basic when you say it,
Speaker:but it makes it so that it's not just
a listserv and it's not just convention
Speaker:once a year.
Speaker:I felt very fortunate to be able to begin
my career in private practice with an
Speaker:experience like that.
Speaker:Wow, that's great. That is great.
Speaker:Everything that NCAJ has done
for NEXT has like yielded
Speaker:like twice as many blessings back.
So it's been a great program for us,
Speaker:including the fact that you're
co-chairing this upcoming CLE,
Speaker:which has an incredible lineup.
Speaker:Yeah. We are really excited about it
and thank you for highlighting it.
Speaker:And we hope,
Speaker:obviously we hope that a lot of members
of the civil rights section will attend,
Speaker:but it's also designed such that
you don't have to be a civil rights
Speaker:practitioner in order
to get a lot out of it.
Speaker:So we heard a lot from
our civil rights section
Speaker:members at convention last year
that they were interested in
Speaker:particular in having,
Speaker:or in hearing from current judges
and current appellate judges if
Speaker:possible, because so much of civil
rights litigation ends up up on appeal.
Speaker:And then also this one was a
little bit of a curveball for me,
Speaker:but I think it makes good sense.
Speaker:There was a big express interest
from the section members to
Speaker:hear from somebody who's traditionally
opposing counsel on the other side of the
Speaker:V and who has experienced defending
civil rights claims on behalf
Speaker:of either municipalities or
insurance companies or kind of our
Speaker:classic civil rights litigation
defendants. And so we
were able to kind of check
Speaker:both of those boxes or fulfill both of
those requests with our panelists and
Speaker:speakers at the event.
Speaker:We're going to have Justice Trey Allen
from the North Carolina Supreme Court
Speaker:talk about state law immunities.
Speaker:So things like sovereign
official, excuse me,
Speaker:sovereign immunity or
public official immunity.
Speaker:And he was a long time and
is a longtime expert in that
Speaker:field from back when he worked
at the UNC School of Government,
Speaker:wrote a really insightful treatise or kind
Speaker:of pamphlet about state level immunities
that civil rights claims often come
Speaker:up against. And then our second
program will be from David Coats,
Speaker:who if NCAJ folks recognize that name,
Speaker:it will either be from being on the
other side of the V as defense counsel,
Speaker:or he also does a lot of
great mediation work as well.
Speaker:So we were excited to hear his
perspective. He'll be speaking about
Speaker:navigating insurance policies,
Speaker:whether it's a municipality
or a police department,
Speaker:kind of some of the modern
twists or wrinkles that you
Speaker:might find in these insurance policies
and how to navigate your way through them
Speaker:or around them. And then
last but certainly not least,
Speaker:Justice Anita Earls from the North
Carolina Supreme Court is going to be
Speaker:speaking to us a little bit more broadly
about how civil rights litigation
Speaker:Negators can use the North
Carolina constitution in
Speaker:civil rights claims and
recent developments in North
Carolina constitutional
Speaker:law as it relates to certain civil
rights claims. Things like, well,
Speaker:Leandro obviously is a state civil
rights state constitutional claim,
Speaker:but also especially after the pandemic,
Speaker:there was a lot of litigation that
some of our section members were really
Speaker:leading in a lot of ways behind
the fruits of the labor clause,
Speaker:which is another kind of niche clause
of the North Carolina Constitution. Of
Speaker:course, we have our own version of
equal protection and due process.
Speaker:So Justice Earls will be speaking
about how you can consider those
Speaker:claims and how those types of
claims have developed over time.
Speaker:Yeah, that's going to be great. That
is going to be a terrific program.
Speaker:And I could definitely see how it would
be something that have an appeal beyond
Speaker:the civil rights section for sure.
Speaker:Yeah. Thank you. Like I said,
like we talked about earlier,
Speaker:there is an element in the
work that all of us do in NCAJ
Speaker:of advocating for somebody who for one
Speaker:reason or another has been put in kind
of this marginalized position going up
Speaker:against this larger institutional power.
Speaker:And the CLE that we'll have
later this month is designed to
Speaker:help folks navigate some of
the complexities in that,
Speaker:because there are always going to
be systemic barriers when you are
Speaker:doing that type of work. And so
we're hoping that in a small way,
Speaker:this will be useful in
those types of claims.
Speaker:Yeah. Terrific. Terrific. Well, Zack,
Speaker:thank you for your work on this and
for helping us spread the word to
Speaker:potential plaintiff's lawyers in law
school and for everything you do for NCAJ.
Speaker:No, thank you very much for having
me on and for highlighting our CLE
Speaker:January 29th, and I hope a lot of your
listeners will be able to join us.
Speaker:I do too. I do too. As Zack said,
Speaker:that program is on January 29.
Speaker:It is at NCAJ headquarters in
Raleigh, or you can attend virtually.
Speaker:And there will be a social after
the CLE where you can chat with the
Speaker:attendees and potentially
the presenters as well.
Speaker:You can register for that or any of
the other terrific CLEs we have coming
Speaker:up in January and February
at ncaja.com/events.
Speaker:Before we go, I'd like to thank today's
episode sponsor, Advocate Capital.
Speaker:Advocate is passionate about helping
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Speaker:for clients, mainly through their
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Speaker:It allows firms to track case
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Speaker:which makes the net cost of
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Speaker:Learn more at advocatecapital.com.
Thanks everyone for listening.
Speaker:And if you're watching on YouTube, don't
forget to subscribe to this channel.
Speaker:Thank you for joining us on
this episode of Voices of NCAJ.
Speaker:For more information on the North Carolina
Advocates for Justice and how to join
Speaker:or support NCAJ,
Speaker:please visit our website at www.ncaj.com.