Trust Partners with Free Legal Advice Programme

Trust Partners with Free Legal Advice Programme

30 September 2014

Building Change Trust is now an official referral partner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation TrustLaw service.

TrustLaw is an innovative programme that links social enterprises and NGOs with top lawyers that have signed on to provide their expertise on a pro bono basis.

Law firms from over 170 countries participate in the service to offer free legal assistance. Since the programme launched in 2010 over 1,000 teams of lawyers have assisted organisations.

By establishing the partnership, Building Change Trust social enterprises are now eligible for fast-track access to the TrustLaw service. Applying for and using the service is entirely free of charge. 

TrustLaw can help with the following types of projects:

  • Protecting intellectual property matters and trademark
  • Registering your organisation and/or deciding which legal structure to adopt
  • Drafting or reviewing partnership agreements, contracts and templates
  • Employment/HR issues or contract negotiations with staff, volunteers, customers, or partners
  • Legal research comparing legislation across multiple countries to be used in reports, advocacy, etc. 

Speaking of the partnership, Nigel McKinney, Director of Operations at Building Change Trust, said: “TrustLaw exists to help social enterprises to focus on their goals by allowing them to save their vital resources with free legal expertise.

"We felt that this is an important partnership to make in order to support the local Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector. 

“By entering this network we are able to connect our social enterprises with high-quality and free legal assistance to allow them to run their operations more effectively and efficiently. We anticipate making referrals first through our work strands

"CollaborationNI, Social Finance and also Inspiring Impact in due course. Any organisations interested in applying must indicate how they are associated with Building Change Trust in order to fast-track the application process. References will also be waived".

To find out more about TrustLaw and the application process, contact Building Change Trust on 028 9040 8725.