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The Thomson Reuters Foundation has just launched an online service to connect—for free—nonprofit groups and social entrepreneurs in need of legal assistance with lawyers willing to work at no charge.
The service, called TrustLaw, says it seeks to promote the practice of pro bono legal work worldwide as well as tackle corruption by providing news and information on good governance issues.
More on the mission from the TrustLaw site:
At the heart of TrustLaw is an ambitious electronic platform called TrustLaw Connect, which offers lawyers and pro bono managers a way to easily connect with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments and social entrepreneurs seeking free legal services.
TrustLaw believes such clients have the potential to address many of the world's environmental, humanitarian and social problems, but their effectiveness may be impeded by lack of legal resources. Thomson Reuters Foundation strives to close this gap through its free services.
On the ground
TrustLaw is new, but the examples of pro bono work already on the site provide a good idea of what is to come: a partnership between law firm K&L Gates and lobby organization Water Advocates has helped to "push through the 2005 Water for the Poor Act, which made the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene a specific objective of USAID. They have also managed to persuade the U.S. government to give USAID $315 million this year, and the same amount in 2009, to implement the bill."
Another partnership, this one in Brazil, brought the nonprofit Outward Bound Brazil together with Brazilian law firm Xavier, Bernardes, Braganca to navigate the country's bureaucracy and complicated tax, accounting, and labor laws that were clouding—and impeding—the work of the organization.
Read about other partnerships, how partnerships form, and more at the TrustLaw site.
