Mission Statement
University Student Legal Services (USLS) is a nonprofit corporation created by Student Government and funded by student fees. The purpose of USLS is to provide education, advice, and representation within the scope of the prepaid student legal services plan. USLS focuses on helping students resolve their legal problems with as little disruption as possible to their educational endeavors. The office promotes preventive law, equipping students to make informed choices.
History
Student Legal Services began at NC State in 1986 as a part-time experimental service with a temporary student fee. In 1987, the service became permanent starting with one full-time attorney and quickly added a second. The office became an incorporated non-profit (501 (c)(3)) in 1992. A third attorney was added in 1992 and a fourth in 2015, who focuses on immigration matters. Support staff is provided by work study students. To avoid conflicts of interest, the attorneys are not employed by the University.
Services provided include: advice on legal matters, settlement negotiations, document creation and review, court representation in certain civil matters, criminal expungements, resource referrals, educational materials, workshops, panel discussions, seminars, and advising registered student groups/Student Government/Student Media/Union Activities Board.
Student Legal Services provides representation in Wake and all the contiguous counties. The office does not represent between two NC State students, disputes with NC State University, disputes against the State of North Carolina or disputes outside the legal parameters of the prepaid legal plan
Campus and community involvement include: Harm Reduction Coalition, SART, Wake County Domestic Violence Task Force, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, academic courses, orientations, Housing Fair, open houses, panels, seminars and conferences.
People
We currently have four full-time attorneys.
Support staff is currently comprised of Financial Aid Work study students.
https://studentlegal.dasa.ncsu.edu/our-staff/
Activities:
- Legal representation
- Document creation and review
- Educational and resource materials
- Educational presentations
- Notarizations
Participation:
- Our office serves approximately 3000 students with their individual legal cases.
- At least 41% of those students were graduate students in 2019.
- Our immigration services comprise almost 20% of the cases handled by our office.
- We had Outreach to hundreds of additional students in 2019 with presentations to 43 classes, student groups, seminars, panel discussions, orientations, etc.
- Podcasts-LegalWerks (WKNC) and Pawcasts (Veterinary School)
- Technician articles-3 last year
- One of the only campuses in the country with a SLS office that advices student groups.
- One of only a handful of SLS offices in the country with a full-time immigration attorney and the only one in NC.
- Notarized over 1300 documents in 2019
- Expungement-Helped students expunge 141 criminal records in 2018
- Provide court representation in Stalking, Domestic Violence and sexual assault cases, having advised and represented in 53 cases in 2019.
- The top types of cases handled are: Criminal; Landlord/Tenant; Immigration; Traffic; and Domestic/Estate.
Facilities:
We are located at 1107 Pullen Hall, NC State University
Director:
Pamarah Gerace
Director, Attorney at Law
(P) (919) 515-7091