Wake Forest Law Student Receives Smith Anderson Pro Bono Award for Exceptional Service

Wake Forest University School of Law student Melissa Stuckey has been presented with the 2026 Smith Anderson Pro Bono Award for Exceptional Service.

Wake Forest Law annually honors an outstanding law student who, through pro bono service, exhibits passion, creativity, dedication, and commitment to serving people in need. The award is named after Smith Anderson in recognition of the firm’s role in funding the establishment of the Smith Anderson Office of Community Outreach at Wake Forest Law, which houses the Pro Bono Project and the Public Interest Law Organization in support of advancing public service and access to justice.

Melissa began her pro bono work during her first year of law school and has made service a defining part of her Wake Forest Law experience. She has participated in the Legal Aid Domestic Violence Advocacy Center, the Prison Letters Project, and the Expungements Project, serving as the primary coordinator since the fall of 2024. In that role, she personally reviewed records and verified expunction petitions for more than 180 clients, served as a liaison between clients and supervising attorneys, expanded the project’s reach beyond Forsyth County, organized its largest-ever intake event, and helped educate the public about the life-changing benefits of expunction.

Additionally, when North Carolina courts implemented mandatory e-filing, Melissa worked with Expunction Project faculty to redesign the entire Project’s system. She developed new client-facing materials, created training modules for student volunteers, and restructured the Project’s internal operations to ensure long-term sustainability. As a result, student participation surged, and nearly all of the Project’s 150 clients this year have already received completed petitions.

In her three years as a law student, Melissa has dedicated more than 230 hours to pro bono service. She will graduate summa cum laude, has served as articles editor of the Wake Forest Law Review and on the Moot Court Board, and will continue her dedication to public service as an assistant district attorney after graduation.

To be an eligible candidate for the Smith Anderson Pro Bono Award for Exceptional Service, a student must:

• Be a 3L Wake Forest Law student
• Be a Pro Bono Honor Society member, or have 75 hours of pro bono service within one academic year or 100 or more pro bono hours within three years.
• Exhibit the passion, creativity, dedication and commitment to serving those in need in a way that results in demonstrated impact or increased access to legal information among an underserved population.

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