What kind of assistance

Once you have become a member, apply for assistance as soon as you are aware of your need and once you have the resources to carry out the project - lawyers will commit their resources for a specific timeframe and once the assistance has been found they'll want to start working on your project fast!

If you are a lawyer, we leave it up to you to decide which requests for assistance you wish to take on. You will be under no obligation to work with any particular NGO or social enterprise and it is up to you to assess your available resources.

TrustLaw Projects

We can help you with all sorts of legal requests, from the simple to the more complex. More often than not, we deal with requests relating to business or administrative matters that are focused on one jurisdiction (country), but we are always keen to help with requests that span a number of different countries or fields.

Below are some of the areas that TrustLaw Connect can assist you with:

Your finances and property

funding and loans
bankruptcy or insolvency issues
your tax requirements
pensions
property, lease and tenancy or utility contracts

Administration and governance

responding to changes in laws
your governance structure
devising a business model best suited to your organisation's needs
expanding operations into another country and legal issues arising in a new environment

Staffing issues

employment law and human resources issues, including employment contracts with your staff or volunteers
drafting training materials on legal issues for your staff or other stakeholders

Your commercial needs

partnership agreements or customer contracts
commercial and trade agreements
intellectual property matters

Information and research

legal research, summarising relevant judgements or international comparative analysis that may support your policy or advocacy work. Do you want to identify the best practices in other countries?
research projects on topics such as human rights, environment, equal rights or land rights issues.

Championing your community

assistance with public interest litigation matters which focus on general principles of law or policy issues (acceptance of such cases will be at our discretion and subject to the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles)

"The law firm you put us in contact with has provided terrific support across the last number of months.

It's been world class from start to finish."

Marten Leijon
Executive Director, Microfinance Information Exchange

TrustLaw Programmes

As we meet with NGOs, social enterprises and governments all around the world and discuss their needs, TrustLaw Connect works with its members to identify ways in which our global network of lawyers can address strategic needs that often cross borders and that are relevant not only to that specific NGO, social enterprise or government, but to a whole sector.

In these cases, we may bring together a significant group of law firms and in-house legal teams to work together and share their resources and expertise. The commitment of resources from TrustLaw Connect to each of these types of programmes is much greater than for our everyday requests of assistance.

For example:

Our team gets involved at senior level to design the project, gather the appropriate legal support and coordinate the assistance provided;
The Foundation may publish, as and when appropriate, papers bringing together the research and findings from the programme;
We can also help the beneficiary to distribute and promote that research widely, although the Foundation will not engage in any advocacy activities.

For examples of our most recent programmes, see Our projects and programmes

While we welcome a wide range of projects on TrustLaw Connect, there are certain requests that we do not accept.

These include:

Requests for pro bono legal assistance for individual needs
Private litigation matters
Advocacy on behalf of organisations or individuals
General requests for the contact details of law firms - we only assist with specific legal requests relating to single projects
Requests for pro bono assistance on behalf of a third party, unless otherwise agreed with our team. The organisation requesting the assistance should be a client that has been vetted by TrustLaw
We can assist you with specific legal requests relating to single projects, but TrustLaw Connect is not a tool for networking or for finding lawyers contact details
Any cases that we deem to be against the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles and our code of ethics

Should TrustLaw Connect be unable to accept a request, there are a number of other organisations that may be able to help you find assistance such as i-ProBono or PILnet: the Global Network for Public Interest Law. See our Pro Bono Links page for more information.