News

Pisgah Legal leader to retire after four decades

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 8, 2024

After 41 years working for justice for disadvantaged people in Western North Carolina at nonprofit Pisgah Legal Services, Executive Director Jim Barrett will be celebrated at a retirement party at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, July 18, at Highland Brewing Company, 12 Old Charlotte Highway, in Asheville.

So far, more than 300 local community leaders and supporters have registered to attend. The retirement event is free thanks to generous sponsors, but registration is required at pisgahlegal.org/jim.

“I am incredibly grateful to have had the privilege of working at Pisgah Legal for 41 years, and leading the organization for 31 of those years,” Barrett said. “I have witnessed firsthand the difference that free legal aid can make in the lives of our clients, and I am immensely proud of the work we have accomplished together. I leave the organization with a sense of fulfillment and optimism for its future.”

Contributions are being made in his honor to The Jim Barrett Fund for Justice, which will be part of the much-needed permanent Pisgah Legal Services endowment to sustain and help secure the nonprofit’s future.

Executive director of the anti-poverty nonprofit since 1993, Barrett first came to Pisgah Legal as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow in 1983 and worked for the organization as a staff attorney for 10 years before leading the agency.

Formed in 1978, PLS in 1983 assisted fewer than a thousand people per year with 15 staff members serving six counties. Under Barrett’s leadership, Pisgah Legal has grown to a staff of 130 serving more than 23,500 clients in WNC last year. The staff includes 35 attorneys whose poverty law efforts are combined with free legal assistance from 250 active volunteer attorneys.

With incredible community support, the organization has expanded to include 16 different programs and an array of social services to work with clients to help them stop abuse, stabilize housing, escape poverty, or in many cases, to cope with living on fixed incomes due to age or disabilities. Staff members include social workers, health insurance navigators, tax credit advocates and Medicaid ombudsmen. Nearly 100 non-attorney volunteers help the organization achieve its mission.