Bio

Gerry Hancock practice includes a wide range of services for non-profit and business organizations, including legal representation, mission development, organizational design, organizational management services, long-range strategic planning, fund-raising planning, tax exemption, legislative agendas, coalition building, grassroots organizing and lobbying (legislative and executive branch). Gerry’s clients have included the Low Wealth Schools Consortium, the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Coalition, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the Biofuels Center of North Carolina. Under Gerry’s leadership, these groups and numerous others have achieved notable results. For the state’s low wealth schools, Gerry was instrumental in the initiation of the Leandro v. NC litigation, leading to the North Carolina Supreme Court landmark ruling guaranteeing every child’s right to a sound, basic education. Gerry also led the lobbying effort to increase the annual supplemental appropriation to the state’s low wealth school systems from $6 million to $225 million and helped lead the legislative effort to authorize (and the public campaign to approve) the 1996 $1.8 billion public school bond. Gerry has served on numerous nonprofit boards and commissions. He was the Founding Chairman of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. He helped to organize and serve as Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center. He has served as the Senate Chair of the General Assembly’s Study Commission on Biotechnology, as Director of the North Carolina Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, as Vice Chair of the North Carolina Board of Ethics, as a Member of the Commission on the Future of the Community College System, and as a Member of the Advisory Committee to the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. He currently serves as the Founding Chair of EducationNC.