Press Release

Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC today announced that Sean F. Perrin has been selected to receive Legal Aid of North Carolina's 2007 Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award. Perrin, a member of Womble Carlyle's Business Litigation Practice Group, will be presented with the award at the Mecklenburg County Bar's Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 24, 2007.

This award is given annually to recognize the extraordinary efforts of Mecklenburg County lawyers who have contributed a significant amount of time and energy toward pro bono work over the past year. Legal Aid of North Carolina (LANC) is a statewide, nonprofit, 501(c)3 law firm that provides free legal services in civil matters to low-income individuals in order to ensure equal access to justice and to remove legal barriers to economic opportunity.

Perrin was selected for the tremendous amount of time he spends volunteering with the Mecklenburg County Bar on a pro bono basis. Perrin frequently handles landlord-tenant disputes for low-income Charlotte residents through Legal Services of Southern Piedmont. Additionally, he has worked with close to 30 pro bono clients in the past year alone, including: helping low-income domestic violence victims obtain 50-B restraining orders through Legal Services, aiding abused and neglected children through the state's Guardian ad Litem program, representing clients charged in criminal cases who cannot afford to hire an attorney through the Mecklenburg County Public Defender's office and handling a variety of misdemeanor and felony cases on a pro bono basis.

Perrin also spends much of his time volunteering with the Guardian ad Litem program, a state-run program that assigns a volunteer to look out for the interest of children who must be removed from their homes. He works through the Council for Children's Rights to assist children in the middle of custody disputes, with the Center's role being to focus on the best interests of the child, and works in Juvenile Court with children who are in Department of Social Services custody.

At Womble Carlyle, Perrin concentrates his practice on the defense of law enforcement officers and municipalities in police misconduct and related civil rights litigation in state and federal courts. He gained substantial trial experience as an assistant District Attorney for Mecklenburg County where he prosecuted murder, rape, armed robbery, and narcotics trafficking cases for five years.

Perrin received his bachelors of arts degree, with honors, in English and political science from James Madison University and obtained his J.D., with honors, from the University of North Carolina. He is admitted to practice law in North Carolina and before the Eastern and Western Districts of the state.