— The North Carolina State Bar is issuing a letter of caution to the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after determining the 16-year-old center isn't authorized to practice law.

The State Bar received a complaint in August, shortly before the UNC Board of Governors stripped the center of its ability to take part in litigation, that alleged that the center never should have been providing legal assistance to people.

The Center for Civil Rights, which was founded in 2001 as part of the UNC School of Law, has supported poor and disenfranchised people in court free of charge, litigating cases involving discrimination in education, employment and housing, among other things. It receives no state money and has been completely supported through private donations.

David Johnson, deputy counsel of the State Bar's Authorized Practice Committee, argued that, as a unit of UNC-Chapel Hill, the center doesn't qualify under state law as a nonprofit organization that can provide indigent legal services. Johnson also argued that the center's director isn't licensed to practice law in North Carolina, so the center doesn't meet the statutory definition of a legal clinic, where "law students [have] an opportunity to provide direct legal services to indigent clients under the supervision of a North Carolina lawyer."

"The training offered to law students by the Center is instead focused on drafting pleadings and other materials for use by the lawyer employees in the Center’s litigation and advocacy efforts," Johnson wrote in a Sept. 6 letter to UNC Law School Dean Martin Brinkley.

Brinkley countered that the center employs two attorneys licensed in the state and that he himself also is a licensed attorney. He also took issue with Johnson's contention that students don't provide legal services to people.

"Since its founding ... the Center has offered practical training to students at the Law School. The Center has made the Law School a destination institution for aspiring attorneys who desire a career in the civil rights field," Brinkley wrote in a Sept. 26 letter.

The Authorized Practice Committee wasn't persuaded, however, voting last month to issue the letter of caution to the center, according to State Bar counsel Katherine Jean. She declined to say whether the center faces any disciplinary action.

The UNC Board of Governors adopted a policy in September preventing any university-affiliated centers from taking part in litigation or providing legal assistance to clients.

Center supporters called the move a political attack on civil rights by the Republican-dominated board. Board members said the center should focus more on teaching students and less on filing lawsuits, especially against state and local agencies.

The policy change allowed the center to continue serving existing clients until their cases are resolved, but the State Bar action now puts any further activity in those cases by center attorneys or law students in doubt.