Although nonprofit organizations can make a big impact, they tend to have tiny or nonexistent legal teams. Even for the lucky few charities with a lawyer in-house or close by, it’s impossible for one attorney to know enough about all the different areas of law to be able to address all the organization’s needs. Fortunately, there is plenty of good will in the legal profession for good causes. Pro bono legal services are quite literally yours for the asking. Here’s how.
And here’s more.
Author: Lesley Rosenthal
LESLEY ROSENTHAL teaches, writes, and talks incessantly about the law. She has developed a curriculum called Advocating for the Rule of Law: A Practical Approach, and she has designed and conducted workshops for artists, lawyers, writers, and others seeking to learn more about how to activate democracy. She is the Chief Operating Officer & Corporate Secretary of The Juilliard School and the author of Good Counsel: Meeting the Legal Needs of Nonprofits (Wiley 2012). Ms. Rosenthal holds a JD from Harvard Law School and a bachelor’s in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Harvard College. She is president of the New York Bar Foundation and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Follow her on Twitter or Facebook @GoodCounselBook and @LetUSROL
View all posts by Lesley Rosenthal
Lesley Rosenthal is correct. There are plenty of big law firms who need to train their transactional associates in client contact, but don’t want to sic them on their paying clients. Nonprofit people tend to come from the same social class as the lawyers and their clients, and need transactional bread-and-butter services. All is good, as long as the nonprofit engages in worthy causes, defined as those that might not upset the paying clients and thus present a business conflict.
Of course, the same incentives do not apply to the legal needs of poor people, whose pro bono services are pretty sketchy.
Heh - underfunded nonprofit corporations are poor people, too.
You should copyright that line before someone steals it!