Lambda Law partners with Smith Dominguez to host virtual Name Change Clinic

As part of Campbell Law School’s Pro Bono Project efforts, Lambda Law, in partnership with Campbell Law alumni at Smith Dominguez PLLC, hosted a virtual Name Change Clinic on Feb. 27 to provide members of the LGBTQIA+ community with information on the name change process in North Carolina. 

Lambda Law is a student-run organization at Campbell Law School that unites and empowers the LGBTQIA+ community on campus. Lambda Law’s mission in hosting the Name Change Clinic was to serve anyone considering changing their name, particularly members of the transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming communities who wish to legally change their name in order to correct official identification documents.  

“The success of the clinic was all thanks to the people who volunteered their time and efforts to this clinic – which just goes to show the care and empathy Campbell Law students have for members of the LGBTQIA+ community,” explained Wallace Driggers, president of Lambda Law. 

Over a two-hour period, volunteers provided information about the legal name-change process to people who have struggled with navigating the court system or who were overwhelmed by the different steps of the application. For many of these individuals, it is their first interaction with the legal system, and transgender people face specific challenges within the traditional judicial system, including social stigmas, and the possibility of being outed by posting their notice of name change, one of the first steps to legally changing your name. By providing legal information to attendees, the Clinic worked to make the name-change process as accessible as possible, offering support and answering questions to serve people within the community. 

Campbell Law students volunteered at the clinic alongside lawyers, paralegals, volunteers from N.C. Central Law School’s Name Change Clinic and other like– minded individuals. The event was advertised on social media – primarily through social work resource groups, and LGBTQIA+ groups, including City of Folks, which is run by Driggers.