Comments on: How to Find a Lawyer for Your Nonprofit Organization

By: Tobler Law

Tobler Law — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 23:23:20 +0000

“Be cautious with attorneys whose name you find under all or many subcategories of law.” You just can’t be a jack of all trades when it comes to the law. If you are good at a lot of things you are expert at none.

By: Young and Young

Young and Young — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:49:30 +0000

Lawyers usually know a lot of other lawyers. If you’ve used a good one in the past for an unrelated case they can usually refer you to a good one for your present situation.

By: Allyn O'Connor

Allyn O'Connor — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:52:21 +0000

Doug –

Thank you for an excellent post. You may want to let your readers know that most legal aid organizations are not able to directly assist nonprofit orgnizations, and not all are in a position to make referrals. Instead, there are programs that generally are not connected to legal aid organizations that arrange for or provide free legal assistance in the form of very experienced business lawyers. There are also a great many law school clinics in which supervised students provide assistance. Examples of some of these pro bono programs are the The Bar Association of San Francisco Volunteer Legal Services Program’s Community Organizations Representation Project (CORP), the Pro Bono Partnership (New York tri-state area), and the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, Inc. Community Economic Development Law Project. To find out more about these and other programs, go to http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/probono/businesslaw/home.html.

By: Thomas Wrobel

Thomas Wrobel — Sun, 17 May 2009 01:47:46 +0000

Experience with nonprofits is key to selecting a lawyer for your nonprofit. I want to suggest http://Nonprofitlegalcenter.com as a great starting point for free information and resources on starting a 501c3 nonprofit.

By: Sandy Rees

Sandy Rees — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:21:26 +0000

I so glad to read your thoughts on asking attorneys to be on your Board! Almost every time I do training with small groups about Board recruitment, they want to find a lawyer to join them. I’m sure there are a few cases where it might work out, but by and large, you don’t want someone on your Board just for their skills. A potential Board member needs to be passionate about the organization and willing to bring his or her skills to the table.

Thanks also for sharing about the possible conflict of interest. That’s something for EVERY Board member to be aware of.

Sandy Rees
http://www.sandyrees.com

By: Shalini

Shalini — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:41:58 +0000

One additional resource: you can also try searching for a business lawyer offering a free consultation on Avvo