MANNING LAW FIRM ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY CLARKE MARTIN RECENTLY ATTENDED THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE BAR’S LEGAL DESERTS SUMMIT

Manning Law Firm Associate Attorney Clarke Martin recently attended the North Carolina State
Bar’s Legal Deserts Summit. There, some of our State’s brightest and most passionate public
interest lawyers brainstormed ways to reduce the number of people in North Carolina whose
legal needs go unmet due to a lack of lawyers in their geographic area or practice area. A “legal
desert” is defined as a county which has fewer than one attorney for every 1,000 residents. In
North Carolina, 48 counties fit this definition despite having experienced a population growth of
almost one million residents over the last decade (2010-2020). Another type of legal desert is a
practice area: if most of the attorneys in a given area practice X type of law but a client has a
legal issue which falls into Y practice area, that client may be experiencing a legal desert even
in a major metropolitan area.

Martin said: “If you look statewide in the state of North Carolina we are in a crisis in that there
are not enough people practicing criminal law anywhere.” Martin noted the fulfilling nature of
her work, calling it “constitutionally mandated” and “important”. She values working with and
helping people one-on-one and “achiev[ing] something for someone every day[.]”