Elizabeth Hartnett recently graduated from the UNC School of Law as part of the Class of 2008.  Along with eight other students in a graduating class of nearly 220 students, Hartnett was also inducted into the institution's prestigious James E. and Carolyn B. Davis Society*. The society allows for recognition of up to eight third-year law students who have made significant contributions to the UNC School of Law.
"Elizabeth was an exceptional student and a wonderful member of our law school community. We will certainly miss her," said UNC School of Law Dean Jack Boger.  "Given her immense talents, we're confident that she has a very bright future ahead of her.  I have no doubt that she will be a fine lawyer, serving her clients and her community with the professionalism and ethical integrity that is the hallmark of all Carolina lawyers."
Hartnett is a graduate of Duke University.  Before beginning law school, she was an intern with the Georgia Law Center for the Homeless and a paralegal with the law firm of Fairfield and Woods in Denver, CO.  She came to law school because, in her words, she wanted “to make a difference in the lives of people with my advocacy.” Since beginning law school at the UNC School of Law in the fall of 2005, she has devoted herself to public service and pro bono work.
Her work experience during law school includes an internship in Juvenile Advocacy with the Legal Aid Society of New York, Juvenile Rights Division, and an internship in Child Protective Law with the Durham County Attorney’s Office. It is Hartnett’s volunteer work, however, that made her such a special student.  This year she served as the Public Service Co-Chair for the Student Bar Association helping to establish programs to encourage law students to volunteer in our community. One program included planning an afternoon where 100 law students provided pro bono and public service work at 15 local organizations.  She was also the Chairperson of a committee that worked to establish a Loan Repayment Assistance Program at UNC for graduates who go into public interest work after graduation.
She also served on the Pro Bono Board at Carolina Law, this past year serving as the Group Projects Coordinator.  She was responsible for overseeing the pro bono work of the student organizations (52 of them) at Carolina Law.  She served as the Board’s Law Related Education Coordinator where she developed and coordinated training programs for students to interview pro bono clients, programs for community members translate for Spanish speakers, and programs to help students in the School of Social Work learn how to testify in court.
She volunteered as a coordinator with the Community Legal Project in Chapel Hill, which required her to recruit student volunteers, attorney supervisors, and overseeing student research.  She was also a member of the Latino Legal Initiative, which is a student organization at UNC, which established a legal clinic for Spanish speakers with Legal Aid of North Carolina, coordinated workshops and helped Hispanic and Latino people with legal issues.
For winter break during her first two years of law school, Hartnett traveled and did public service work instead of relaxing and enjoying her time off.  First in New Orleans in 2005, helping attorneys with clients and updating family law cases after Hurricane Katrina, and then in Orange County, FL, in 2006, conducting research and assisting with representation of juveniles in delinquency cases.
She is a member of the Juvenile Justice and Education Law Sections of the North Carolina Bar.  And she is one of only 26 students in her class to have performed over 100 hours of pro bono service during their law school career.
Elizabeth was a graduate of Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, Florida in 1999 and a graduate of Duke University in 2003. She has been a summer resident of Blowing Rock for 26 years. Her parents, Bob and Betty Hartnett currently reside in Winter Park, Florida and Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
*Jim Davis, a 1973 UNC School of Law graduate of superb ability and character, died of cancer in 1980. His wife, Carolyn, an outstanding person in her own right, died of cancer in 1982. To perpetuate the memory of these two individuals who possessed qualities of integrity, responsibility, leadership and dedication, their friends and families established the society that bears their names.