Charlotte attorney Aretha Blake was selected by the North Carolina Bar Association as one of only eleven outstanding citizen lawyers honored for contributions outside their law practice that help the community through leadership and service. 

Although Blake has served in several leadership roles within the Mecklenburg County Bar Association, Blake’s impact in the community is most significant in her work with organizations to benefit children.  For the past three years, Blake has worked with the Council for Children’s Rights as a volunteer to advocate for children in school disciplinary hearings and as a member of the Council’s Board of Directors.  Council volunteers, who include lawyers and non-lawyers, represent students to preserve their due process rights in the disciplinary process.  Blake stresses the importance of “making sure discipline is handed down consistently and not based on visual bias.”

While Blake’s work with the Council clearly draws upon her legal skills, in other volunteer work with the H.L. McCrorey Family YMCA located in the Northwest Corridor of Charlotte, Blake enjoys using non-legal skills.  “Right now,” comments Blake, “the YMCA is my heart.  The work is interesting because I get to help separate and apart from being a lawyer.”  Blake says she developed a connection to the McCrorey YMCA and the children it serves when she started volunteering there as part of a Junior League of Charlotte placement to organize a college fair.  Blake now serves on the McCrorey YMCA’s Board and has spearheaded significant fundraising efforts on the YMCA’s behalf with its past two annual Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfasts.  Keith Vinson, Executive Director of the McCrorey YMCA, identifies Blake’s passion for law as the thing that connects her to volunteerism in the community.  “Her passion shines through her leadership roles [on] various Board of Directors and Committees that she is committed to serving,” says Vinson. “Ms. Blake is not only committed to service, but is well-rounded in that commitment, providing community, civic, and professional leadership.”   

Blake practices with the Charlotte office of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP as special counsel in the area of commercial litigation with a special focus on business torts.  She is a Charleston, South Carolina native and a graduate of Florida State University and the University of Georgia School of Law.