Alison McKenna highlights some of the free legal resources available to small charities through LawWorks.
As the Principal Judge at the Charity Tribunal, I am always keen to see that charities receive as much support as possible, and am pleased when I see lawyers doing their part to help out. As it is Small Charity Week (19 – 24 June) it is my pleasure to highlight the free legal advice and support available to small charities through LawWorks’ Not-For-Profits Programme.
As we all know, charities and not-for profits provide a valuable and significant service to communities and timely legal advice can be vital to ensuring they are operating efficiently and able to focus on delivery of vital services to their beneficiaries. Charities may need legal advice on a range of issues but with nearly one in five charities ‘struggling to survive’ due to decreasing incomes and increasing demand for services (as reported in the CAF Social Landscape Report) there may be a number of barriers to accessing legal advice.
LawWorks is a charity committed to enabling access to justice through free legal advice and the LawWorks Not-For-Profit Programme brokers legal advice to small not-for-profit organisations, to support the continuation and expansion of their services to people in need. Around 80 law firms and in house legal teams participated in the Programme in 2016 and 162 cases for not-for-profit organisations were placed with volunteer lawyers.
Annual awards
LawWorks hosts an annual Pro Bono Awards ceremony which celebrates legal pro bono undertaken by organisations and individuals. Having judged the 2014 Awards I am very pleased to be on this year’s judging panel. Through the judging process I learned a lot about the support available to charities through the Not-For-Profit programme and the positive impact legal advice can have on a charity’s operations.
As an example, a historic investment land-owning charity which provides monetary gifts to the poor and elderly residents in the community at Christmas approached LawWorks for advice as it was experiencing numerous problems with one of its tenants. The charity was having problems with late payment of rent and the land was being left unmanaged, in breach of the lease terms. The charity also felt that an increase in rent, in line with current land rental evaluations, was considerably overdue. Due to the non-payment of rent by the tenant, the charity was unable to make grants out of its rental income. The charity trustees therefore wanted to change the tenant but they had no means to pay for a solicitor to help them carry out this process.
After working with the charity to gather background information and some initial documents, LawWorks was able to assign the case to an in-house lawyer from Hilton Worldwide (“Hilton”), who was described by the charity as “magnificent with the help she has offered us literally from day one”. The lawyer negotiated with the tenant which resulted in him relinquishing the tenure of the land at no financial cost. She was also able to steer the charity through the requirements of the Land Registry and ensure the land was registered properly. Finally, with the lawyer’s help, a new tenant was found who was willing to pay the charity an appropriate amount of rent for the land. The lawyer’s work on this pro bono matter, together with other pro bono work carried out by Hilton’s legal team during the year, resulted in Hilton winning the Best Contribution by an In-House Team award at the LawWorks Pro Bono Annual Awards.
Types of support
Free Case Work: LawWorks can support a charity with free casework. Where a not-for-profit organisation needs help with a one-off legal issue, LawWorks matches it with a specialist volunteer lawyer from its network of member law firms and in-house legal teams.
Free videos: LawWorks’ website hosts a collection of free-to-view videos about common legal issues faced by not-for-profit organisations including charity issues. The videos are also on YouTube and can be downloaded as podcasts with topics including property law (e.g. renewing a lease, basics of property law), employment law (e.g. disciplinary procedures and employee grievances) intellectual property and lots of other subjects – including how to use the Charity Tribunal!
Free health check and initial advice: The new “Honorary Counsel pilot scheme” represents an expansion of LawWorks’ services for small not-for-profit organisations. The pilot matches not-for-profit organisations with legal volunteers for a longer-term relationship including pro bono assistance. Volunteers will carry out a basic legal health check of the organisation’s main documents and act as a first point of contact for free initial advice when needed.
I hope Small Charity Week will provide a platform to raise awareness of the support available to small charities and not-for-profits who do a great deal to support some of the most vulnerable members of society. You can find out more about the support available online here.
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