About Rocky Cabagnot, Fractional General Counsel for Nonprofits, Corporate Board Trainer & Strategic Planning Consultant
Attorney Rocky Cabagnot grew up in Salisbury, North Carolina. He is a proud graduate of the Class of 1992 of Salisbury High School (Go Hornets!). He furthered his education in the 'Southern Part of Heaven' at the University of of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received his Bachelors Degree (Go Heels!). Following a call to become an attorney, Rocky ventured down to sunny Gainesville, Florida and obtained a Juris Doctor degree (with Honors) from the University of Florida Levin College of Law where he served as Senior Research Editor of the Florida Law Review (Go Gators!).
Spurning a career in corporate law after graduation, Rocky started his legal career at Three Rivers Legal Services in Gainesville, Florida - first, as an AmeriCorps Housing Attorney and later, as an Equal Justice Works Fellow, where he designed an innovative access to justice project to serve the legal needs of the low income community in rural north central Florida. After his public interest law fellowship, he made his way to Florida's capitol, Tallahassee, where he started a Community Economic Development legal unit at Legal Services of North Florida where he provided direct legal services to affordable housing and community development related nonprofits throughout the Florida panhandle.
In 2012, he returned home to North Carolina, where he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Law at an ABA accredited law school in Charlotte, North Carolina. During his tenure at the law school (2012-2017), Rocky developed and supervised a legal clinic (staffed by certified legal interns) that provided free legal services to Charlotte area nonprofit organizations. Additionally, he has taught as an adjunct professor in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Master of Public Administration program teaching courses in public administration law and nonprofit capacity building. From 2017 through 2019, Rocky spent two years running the Salisbury-Rowan Community Action Agency (a multi-million dollar federally funded nonprofit) as its Executive Director where he oversaw a Head Start program that served over 1000 children and families throughout five counties and a federally funded CSBG workforce development program in Rowan and Cabarrus Counties.
In October 2019, Rocky decided to return to the full time practice of law and joined the law firm of Hull & Chandler P.A. In addition to legal practice, Rocky provides corporate goverance trainings for nonprofit boards and strategic planning consulting services for nonprofits. He is a Member in Good Standing with the North Carolina and Florida Bars.
Testimonials on Rocky's work:
When it came time to create our non-profit foundation, we had a lot of questions. From start to finish, Rocky explained every step and option in detail. He has a deep knowledge what it takes to successfully launch and operate a non-profit. Once all of the paperwork was finished, he e spent considerable time training us on all the ins and outs of running our organization efficiently, which we found invaluable. His knowledge and patience have been so critical to our success in getting this venture off the ground.
Jamie Christhilf
Board of Directors
Steve Wilks 3T Foundation, Charlotte NC
Rocky worked with us through the legal and governance process to establish our 501(c)3 public charity. He was extremely diligent in everything that he did, helped us through every step and answer every question we didn’t even know that we had! His governance training was extremely informative and thorough, and we continue to refer to it often even without him there to guide us personally. Rocky helped us through the process of establishing our Board of Directors and draft our Bylaws in a manner that was thoughtful and can stand the test of time. He provided legal opinion and guidance throughout the process and followed up continuously to ensure that all was taken care of in a timely manner. I would recommend Rocky to any non-profit!
Katie Church, President and Chair of the Board
David Moore Foundation, Charlotte NC
WAGES [would like to] acknowledge the great work Mr. Rocky Cabagnot has done in collaboration with our agency as our legal representative. His extensive knowledge of nonprofit and community action agency inner workings, funding source requirements, and his dynamic work ethic have made Mr. Cabagnot, the perfect fit for WAGES legal needs.
Patricia Beier, CEO
Wayne Action Group for Economic Solvency (WAGES), Goldsboro NC
It has been great to have [Rocky] as our fractional counsel for the last two years. [His] knowledge of Head Start and nonprofit law has helped WNCSource navigate many challenges. It is also wonderful that other lawyers at Hull and Chandler are available to assist with other areas of law. Having you as fractional counsel, attending our Board meetings, and building a relationship with our Board and staff, certainly helped us impress our FA-2 reviewers.
David White, CEO
WNCSource, Hendersonville, NC
NEW Community Action, Inc. recently had Mr. Cabagnot facilitate Governance training to our Board of Directors. His knowledge and education as an attorney gave the Board the confidence that his interpretation of the law was spot on, but their confidence increase the more when he connected the law, and Head Start Performance Standards with his hands on experience as an Executive Director of a community action agency.
As a trainer, he was open to dialogue and ensureing that before we left a subject all questions were answered, and knowledge was gained before we went on with the next subject area. Afterwards, Board member asked for his return on other matters, and he has become a trustworthy advocate for our agency.
Nichelle Cole, Executive Director
Nash Edgecome Wilson Community Action Inc., (NEW Community Action), Rocky Mount NC