Robert Zaytoun, a principal in the Raleigh’s Zaytoun law Firm, gave a quarter of a million dollar donation to Campbell University School of Law.
The gift will support the work of the Blanchard Community Law Clinic, which allows law students the opportunity to obtain real-world trial experience, according to the school’s announcement.
Students handle cases with a high level of independence and conduct client interviews, prepare motions, oversee case management and make court appearances, according to the announcement.
For the past 35 years, Zaytoun’s practice has focused on a wide range of litigation areas, including catastrophic personal injury, medical negligence, commercial litigation, health care fraud and regulatory compliance liability, representation of physicians in various contract and non-compete disputes, maritime law litigation and 1983 Civil Rights cases, according to the announcement.
The Blanchard Community Law Clinic, which launched in 2016 with a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, partners with nonprofit agencies in the community—Alliance Medical Ministry, StepUp Ministry, the Raleigh Rescue Mission, and Urban Ministries—to provide solutions to legal problems encountered by clients of those agencies, according to the school’s website.
“I am thrilled to support the Blanchard Community Law Clinic through this gift as they continue to give voice to the diverse populations coming into contact with our civil justice system,” Zaytoun said in a statement. “I have always admired Campbell Law School for its pragmatic approach to legal education and community involvement.”
“Dean Rich Leonard, who I have known and admired for over 30 years, along with his capable and dedicated faculty and staff, do incredible work in educating students to become outstanding trial lawyers,” Zaytoun said. “It’s also an honor to continue the legacy of Charlie Blanchard, one of my heroes.”
In 2018, Campbell Law renamed the clinic in honor of legal pioneer and servant leader Charles Fuller Blanchard, who was the senior partner at Blanchard, Miller & Lewis until becoming of counsel in 2000, and was a founding member of the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers. He died in 2021.
Blanchard gave a gift of $250,000 in 2018, which has been supplemented over time with smaller gifts from his family, Leonard said in an email to Law.com.
“Our vision for this clinic, which offers pro bono legal services to residents facing legal challenges including housing, expunctions and driver’s license restoration, is ambitious,” Leonard said in a statement. “We have big goals for what we want to do, and this generous donation allows us to meet them.”
The clinic has made a tremendous impact in the Raleigh community and beyond helping nearly 1,600 clients to date with legal services provided by Campbell Law students, under the supervision of Clinic Director Rick Glazier and other clinical professors, according to the announcement.
“Robert’s extraordinarily generous gift to the Blanchard Community Law Clinic epitomizes decades of unwavering commitment to the profession, to training the next generation of civil rights attorneys and to serving some of the most vulnerable citizens of our state at the times they most desperately need and can benefit from counsel,” Glazier said in a statement. “His contribution speaks volumes about Robert’s passion for social justice, equal access to justice for all North Carolinians and programs that actually help achieve both. Generations of students and impacted citizens will benefit from this enormously thoughtful and vital gift.”
Zaytoun earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1975, after having earned his bachelor’s degree in 1971, also at UNC-CH. He earned his Mediation Course Certification from the Duke Private Adjudication Center in 2002, according to the announcement.
He began his legal career in 1976 with Salem & Salem, a litigation firm in Tampa, and after becoming a member of the North Carolina Bar in 1975, he returned to his native North Carolina in 1978, taking a position as an assistant district attorney for Wake County where he worked for four years until he entered private practice in 1982, focusing on criminal defense. His practice soon evolved into representing clients in personal injury cases.
Read more at Restoration News Media and Law.com.
