Dr. Alicia Mitchell-Mercer is a co-founder of the North Carolina Justice for All Project, which sued the state of North Carolina, challenging the state’s restrictions that prevent her and others who are not licensed attorneys from providing legal help to people in her community.  

Alicia didn’t take the bar exam or go to law school, but she has a doctorate in public administration and years of experience in the legal field—initially as a certified paralegal and later advising legal professionals as a project management consultant on how to enhance efficiency. She has worked on cases at every court level, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

More importantly, her life has been defined by service, including volunteering for pro bono efforts, helping with anti-human trafficking initiatives, serving as a court-appointed child advocate for abused and neglected children, and extending to her work today advocating for more people to have access to legal representation.  

No matter from what angle Alicia looks at our nation’s civil justice system—whether it be efficacy and efficiency or fairness and morality—it doesn’t make any sense that someone like her can’t help people with legal problems that she knows how to solve. Especially when most people who need her assistance are never going to afford the steep fees that attorneys charge.

The decision to pursue legal action was not made lightly by Alicia. But she got fed up with watching the legal industry fail everyday Americans. The cycle was too familiar: at various points in her career, Alicia witnessed heartbreaking moments when people reached out to law firms in desperation, pleading for exceptions or discounts because they couldn’t afford the steep retainer fees.

Sometimes, Alicia would overhear these conversations and intervene to provide limited support under the supervision of attorneys she already worked with —like when, outside of her regular work hours, she helped a single father draft an emergency child custody lawsuit to rescue his three children who were abducted by their mother and taken to a heroin house in another state where they were physically and sexually assaulted. It is painful for Alicia to think of all the other people seeking legal help in emergency situations that probably have worse outcomes because they are turned away.

“These are the devastating real-life issues people are facing, and they desperately need help. It’s incredibly frustrating when lawyers hold the key to helping more people by simply moving out of the way, yet they choose to act as gatekeepers and block others from providing urgently needed legal help. Most people can’t afford their services, yet these lawyers essentially say, ‘We won’t help you, but we won’t let anyone else help you either.’”

Even with the support of the law firms Alicia had previously worked for as a paralegal or consulted with as a legal project manager—firms that would occasionally supervise her upon request so she could ghostwrite legal documents for people in need—there was a line Alicia couldn’t cross.

That line became painfully clear to Alicia when she witnessed a domestic violence survivor, she had assisted being forced to cross-examine her own abuser in court. Alicia couldn’t represent her in court. All she could do is helplessly watch as the woman crumbled while questioning the man who had traumatized her.

Alicia never thought her nonprofit would be the plaintiff in a lawsuit. But that is how committed she is to fighting for those who fail to receive legal help with civil issues that can change the trajectory of a person’s life.

“All we want is a system that is fair. People should have the ability to access legal help for critical life problems when they need it. Instead, they are faced with roadblocks and barriers because of the way the legal system is structured – for lawyers by lawyers. While our lawsuit was recently dismissed at the district court level, we are appealing to the Fourth Circuit because the fight for justice and accessible legal help is far from over.”

As the COO of Frontline Justice and a dedicated community justice worker, Alicia approaches her work with a clear focus on who she is helping. She tells the stories of those she serves but understands that she is not the one living through them. She believes that the efforts of community justice workers are part of a larger, generational fight for justice – one that extends far beyond the challenges of today. For the people she serves, Alicia strives to be more than just a guiding voice. She aims to stand alongside them, because that is what they truly need.

“Being a justice worker means helping someone else bear their burdens so that they don’t have to carry them alone.”

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