Representation Agreement

This Representation Agreement (“Agreement”) will confirm that WHITE AND JACKSON, PLLC d/b/a PROFESSIONAL LICENSE DEFENDERS OF NORTH CAROLINA (“PLDNC” or “Firm”) has agreed to serve as legal counsel to You and to represent You with respect to matters described herein which may arise during a Period PLDNC is retained by You, and this Agreement sets forth the terms and conditions regarding that representation. This representation is limited as described herein. PLDNC would consider representing You in other matters, but will do so only upon entering a new, separate, written representation agreement and payment of a separate fee arrangement.

1. Term of Representation and Automatic Renewal of Term. Representation under this Agreement shall be for a fixed period of one (1) month which shall be from the first day of the month to the last day of the month, or if the Firm is retained by You in the middle of a month, then representation under this Agreement shall commence on the date Your first retainer payment is made and shall run to the last day of the month in which Your first payment is made (“Period”). Representation under this Agreement renews automatically and your stored payment method shall be charged automatically pursuant to Section 3, below. At the expiration of the Period, representation under this Agreement shall renew automatically for the automatic renewal period of one (1) month at the then-current retainer fee unless and until you terminate representation as described herein. “Current Period” shall mean the current month You are represented by PLDNC. “Past Period” shall mean a previous month during which PLDNC was retained by You.

2. Scope of Representation. The Firm agrees to represent You with respect to future disciplinary matters before Your respective Licensing Board (“Board”) which occur during the Current Period or occurred during a Past Period if you still retain PLDNC during the Current Period. The scope of services under this Agreement is limited to:

(a) Self-report and disclosure to the Board of certain investigations, charges, convictions, disciplinary actions by another board, or other reportable event as required by Your Board;

(b) Formal investigations of You by the Board with notice to you into misconduct or other violations of the rules and regulations governing the practice of Your licensed profession;

(d) Formal investigation and/or prosecution of a complaint or grievance to the Board against You;

(e) Administrative proceedings of disciplinary action against you by the Board; and

(f) Hearings before the Board concerning You and Your license

(hereinafter the “Services”). This Agreement does not include future disciplinary matters which occurred outside of a Past Period or Current Period of representation, does not include the taking or defending of an appeal to the Superior Court of North Carolina or the North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings or any other appellate court or federal court, and does not include the filing or defending of a separate civil action or administrative complaint. PLDNC will need to enter into an additional and separate representation agreement to initiate an appeal, civil litigation, or other proceedings.

3. Fee Arrangement. You agree to pay the Firm a retainer fee of $9.00 for representation during each Period under this Agreement. You agree that Representation shall automatically renew for a successive Period at the then-current retainer fee (“Renewal Period”) unless representation is terminated by You as described in this Agreement. You authorize the Firm to automatically charge Your stored payment method for the Renewal Period on the 1 st day of the Renewal Period. The Firm agrees not to charge an additional fee for the Services beyond the retainer fee paid for each Period. This retainer fee does not include costs and expenses incurred by You other than the Services. Third-party costs and expenses, such as expert witness fees or private investigator fees should any arise, shall be billed directly to You by the third-party. You agree that this retainer fee or any portion thereof shall be earned when received and will be deposited into the Firm’s operating account. You acknowledge that no part of this retainer fee payment shall be deposited into a trust account to be applied towards subsequent expenses or other legal services.

4. Client Obligations. You agree to cooperate with PLDNC so that the Firm can perform the Services in a timely and efficient manner. In particular, You agree to notify the Firm immediately upon Your need for Services described above. Additionally, cooperation with the Firm includes, at minimum, as follows:

(a) You agree to provide me with truthful and thorough information.

(b) You agree to provide me with any records or documents which I may request in a timely manner.

(c) You agree that if You are delivering hard copies of records or documents, said records or documents shall be delivered via hand delivery or parcel service.

(d) You agree that if you are delivering soft copies of records or documents, said records or documents shall be delivered via email attachment or external storage device sent via parcel service. You agree that soft copies of documents shall be delivered in DOC, PDF, or XLS format, soft copies of images shall be in jpeg, jpg, or png format, and video files shall be in mp4, m-peg4, or mov format. You acknowledge that text message communications are not an acceptable method for delivering soft copies of records or documents. You acknowledge that the conversion of jpeg images of a document to a PDF document is tedious and time consuming, and not within the contemplated scope of representation at the inception of the Firm’s representation of You.

(e) You agree that that if a parcel service is utilized to deliver records, documents, or any other item, You will send the parcel to the Firm’s mailing address at PO Box 6696, Raleigh, NC 27628.

(f) You agree to be available upon reasonable notice for consultation, to keep me advised of any changes of address or other contact information or extended absences so that I may communicate readily with you, comply with the firm’s requests in a timely manner,

(g) You agree to pay any expenses incurred that are not included in your fee arrangement.

(h) You agree to heed the advice and recommendations, and otherwise to assist us as the Firm may request.

(i) You agree to comply with the Communication Policy in Section 4, infra.

You agree that noncompliance with these Client Obligations shall be grounds for the assessment of an additional fee pursuant to Section 7, infra, or termination pursuant to Section 8, infra, at the sole discretion of the Firm.

5. Communication Policy. You agree that email shall be the primary means of communication with the Firm. Email is the most effective means of communication. It preserves information communicated and is both immediate and permanent. The workflow maintained by the Firm is based upon an email Communication Policy. In particular, you agree to notify the Firm IMMEDIATELY when representation covered under the Services are needed. You acknowledge that the Firm is not responsible for any missed deadlines or other prejudice to Your representation which result from your noncompliance with this Communication Policy.

6. Acknowledgements. You acknowledge that it is Your obligation to notify the Firm of the need for Services immediately when the need arises. Services with a licensing board are time sensitive. Failure to notify the Firm immediately of a need for Services could prejudice your case. You acknowledge that neither I nor the Firm has made any guarantee or promise to you concerning the outcome or results of our representation of you. You acknowledge that (i) this Firm, You, and others participating in this representation may correspond or convey documentation via Internet email; (ii) no party has control over the performance, reliability, availability, or security of Internet email; and (iii) the Firm shall not be liable for any loss, damage, expense, harm, or inconvenience resulting from the loss, delay, interception, corruption, or alteration of any Internet email due to any reason beyond reasonable control. You acknowledge that (i) this Firm, You, and others participating in this representation may correspond or convey documentation via parcel service such as, inter alia, USPS, FedEx, and UPS; (ii) no party has control over the performance, reliability, availability, or security of a parcel service; and (iii) the Firm shall not be liable for any loss, damage, expense, harm, or inconvenience resulting from the loss, delay, interception, corruption, or alteration of a parcel service due to any reason beyond reasonable control.

7. Authority. Certain decisions are at Your sole discretion. You decide whether to accept a settlement or consent order. I advise and counsel you through decisions, but the aforementioned decision is yours to make. You also determine and communicate to me your goals of my representation of you. You acknowledge and agree that the decisions related to the legal strategy how best to accomplish these goals are at my sole discretion based on my experience, knowledge, and judgment. You acknowledge and agree that I have final decision-making authority concerning the legal sufficiency of any legal theory, motion, filing, allegation, complaint, defense, or other decision with legal repercussions that is not expressly in your discretion.

8. Reservation of Rights. Matters and issues outside the scope of the Services are not covered. The Firm or an affiliate firm would be happy to consider representing you in other matters under a separate fee structure. The Firm reserves the right to charge an additional fee for matters outside the Services, if the matter grows in complexity due to undisclosed or untruthful information, or circumstances beyond the control of the Firm. You are not obligated to use the Firm for matters outside the Services under this Agreement.

9. Termination of Representation. Representation under this Agreement may be terminated upon the occurrence of any of the following:

(a) Written notice from you to the Firm of termination of the Firm’s services and representation;

(b) You are unresponsive to Firm communications or requests;

(d) If any fact or circumstance arises that would, in the Firm’s view, render continued representation unlawful, unethical, or inconsistent with the terms of this Agreement;

(e) Failure to comply with this Agreement;

(f) Cancelation of your Renewal Period through the online portal;

(f) Failure to comply with the payment terms of Section 3 upon notice from the Firm of lapsed payments.

Upon termination, for any reason, the Firm will honor instructions to take reasonable measures under the circumstances to facilitate the orderly transfer of responsibility and files in your case to other counsel of his choice.

You acknowledge and understand that after termination of representation, PLDNC has no obligation to represent You with respect to any matter. PLDNC must be retained by You during the Current Period to provide representation.

10. Document Retention Policy. The Firm will maintain all documents you furnish the Firm in the Firm’s client files. At the conclusion of this matter (or earlier if appropriate), it is your obligation to advise the Firm as to which, if any, of the documents in the Firm’s files to return. The Firm may keep copies thereof to the extent the Firm believes advisable for the Firm’s records and the Firm may ask you to retrieve his documents. The Firm will retain any remaining documents in the Firm’s files for a certain period of time and ultimately destroy them in accordance with my Record Retention Program schedule then in effect.

11. Advanced Conflict of Interest Waiver. Our engagement by the You is also understood as entailing your consent to our representation of our other present or future clients in transactions, including litigation in which we have not been engaged to represent You and in which You have other counsel, and in which one of our other clients would be adverse to You in matters unrelated to those that we are handling for You. The Firm is not aware of any current adversity between You and another client. Given the nature of the Firm’s practice within geographic area of You, however, the Firm must preserve its ability to represent clients on matters which may arise in the future, provided that the Firm would only undertake such representation of future clients under circumstances in which we do not possess confidential information of You relating to the matter(s), and we would staff such a project with one or more attorneys who are not engaged in your representation. In such circumstances, the attorneys in the two matters would be subject to an ethical wall, screening them from communicating with each other regarding their respective engagements. Your confidential and privileged information shared with the Firm will not be disclosed. We understand that you do consent to our representation of our other clients under those circumstances. The Firm’s representation of You will not be adversely affected by any subsequent representation. Any subsequent representation will not result in disclosure or use of information imparted by the You during this representation.

12. Potential for Actual Conflict of Interest. In very rare circumstances, the Firm may represent two clients who are a party to the same Board disciplinary action. In such circumstances, a conflict of interest may exist. If a conflict of interest exists and informed consent confirmed in writing to joint representation is not appropriate or either client is not willing to give informed consent confirmed in writing to joint representation, the Firm would not be able to represent either client. In these very rare circumstances, the Firm will offer to refer each client to a competent attorney not associated with the Firm, and the Firm shall cover the legal expenses of the referred attorney.

13. Commencement of Representation. The Firm agrees to begin representing you under this Agreement upon payment pursuant to Section 3 of this Agreement and completion of a conflict of interest check, and You agree the Firm shall process your stored payment method from month to month pursuant to Section 3 of this Agreement

14. Amendments to Agreement. The Firm reserves the right to amend this Agreement as necessary to provide the Services to You. Proposed amendments shall be communicated to you with 30-days notice before going into effect. Your election to continue with representation under this Agreement shall be construed as your acceptance to the amended terms.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE YOU HAVE READ THE FOREGOING REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT AND FULLY UNDERSTAND IT. YOU AGREE THAT BY PAYING THE FIRM A RETAINER FEE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT.

Professional License Defenders of N.C.