Adam K. Doerr Honored for Outstanding Pro Bono Service

The Mecklenburg County Bar presented Robinson Bradshaw attorney Adam K. Doerr with the Outstanding Individual Attorney Pro Bono Award at its annual meeting yesterday.

The annual award honors an attorney who has contributed extraordinary service to the provision of pro bono services to people in need, children or nonprofit organizations. Doerr has dedicated hundreds of hours to pro bono client work since the start of 2020 alone.  

“As lawyers, it is a professional duty to lend our skills and time to our neighbors with limited means,” said Managing Partner Allen K. Robertson. “For Adam, it’s not just a duty – it’s a calling.”

Among his many pro bono projects, Doerr spearheaded an effort challenging North Carolina’s distribution of COVID-19 relief aid payments to parents. As a result of Robinson Bradshaw’s lawsuit and subsequent information-sharing campaign, the Department of Revenue reopened the application. Nearly 25,000 low-income families originally excluded from the relief program were able to request the payments in the second application window, and more than $5 million in aid was distributed.

Doerr also led a team of Robinson Bradshaw lawyers as pro bono counsel for the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus. Doerr and colleagues have filed amicus briefs in the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court on behalf of the Black Caucus in litigation over the validity of 2018 amendments to the North Carolina Constitution.

In a similar vein, Doerr is part of the legal team arguing consequential constitutional questions pro bono on behalf of the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters, including a fight against partisan gerrymandering that also involves the “independent state legislature” theory in federal elections.

“Adam is a true servant-leader, fueled by service to others and the pursuit of equal justice,” said D. Blaine Sanders, Robinson Bradshaw’s director of pro bono services.

Doerr co-chairs Robinson Bradshaw’s Appeals and Class Actions practice groups. In his litigation practice, he advocates for companies and individuals involved in significant business disputes, including financial services litigation, class actions, employment, shareholder and corporate governance disputes, and appeals in state and federal courts. He also co-chairs the firm’s Recruiting Committee and serves on the North Carolina Bar Association’s Appellate Rules Committee.

Doerr earned his law degree magna cum laude from Duke University, where he was editor-in-chief of the Duke Law Journal. He received his bachelor’s degree from Pomona College.