function/role of nonprofit's legal advisor?

[LibrD...@aol.com]

Hello everyone,

What is or should be the proper function or role of a nonprofit's legal advisor?

Is his/her role just to help the board with the legal paperwork or should he/she also be willing to answer questions from members (those not on the board) that are related to the organization?

Our legal advisor helps the board with paperwork and makes sure everything is filed properly. However some members approach the legal advisor asking questions and the legal advisor does not feel this is appropriate.

What has been your experience? Is the legal advisor to a nonprofit that of an administrator or teacher or both or none of these?

Thanks for your input,

Janice Rosen

Founder
(Richard) Wagner Society of Washington, DC

President
DC Self Help for Hard of Hearing Group

board member of other nonprofits

[Graham Freeman]

On Sun, 21 Apr 2002 LibrD...@aol.com wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> What is or should be the proper function or role of a nonprofit's legal
> advisor?

[remainder left unquoted]

I don't know if there are official guidelines or requirements for an
'official' legal advisor, but it seems to me that the scope of duties for
such a role vary from organization to organization and should be defined
in a job description agreed to and signed by all involved parties.

The law is a tangled and complicated beast, and no one individual can hope
or pretend to be the single authoritative source of all legal information.

I don't blame your legal advisor for not wanting to serve a general legal
consultant, especially if she/he is a volunteer and her/his understanding
at the beginning of the relationship was that the only role she/he would
play would be to assist with paperwork. The key here is to define the
relationship and stick to that definition.

That said, I am not a lawyer and I am relatively inexperienced in the
nonprofit world. My advice is worth what you paid for it.

--

Graham Freeman Executive Director, CalTEG
tel: +1 831 466 0853 http://www.calteg.org/

[Channing Hillway, Ph.D.]

Janice:

This truly is a tricky deal. If the legal advisor is from outside the
organization and is working for fee or pro bono, then the nature of the
relationship should be defined in a contract or letter of understanding. If
pro bono, then such a document may be missing. The deal would be whatever
the legal advisor signed on for.

If the legal advisor is a member of the organization who has agreed to
limited legal assistance, probably because he or she is a lawyer, then it
wise to have strong limits on what the person does. It has been said that
one should never volunteer in the area where one earns a living. The reason
is that the volunteering becomes a second shift on the job for no pay -- and
hours seem to keep expanding if one is just a "good guy" about it all. If
this is the situation for your legal advisor, I advise you to strictly
respect the limits that he/she has established. You may need to find an
outsider to provide legal advice.

Best wishes,

Channing

--
Channing Hillway, Ph.D.
ARISTARCUS COMMUNICATION
Applying communication science to solve real world problems
. Organizational & Educational Systems & Policy
. Organizational & Interpersonal Communication
. Conflict Resolution
. Business Communication
. Grant Proposal & Program Development for NPOs/NGOs
. ARISTARCUS: Digitronic Learning Environment
Post Office Box 1557, Oak View CA 93022-1557 USA
chan...@rain.org

----- Original Message -----
From: <LibrD...@aol.com>
To: <nonp...@rain.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 6:31 PM
Subject: function/role of nonprofit's legal advisor?

> Hello everyone,
>
> What is or should be the proper function or role of a nonprofit's legal
advisor?
>

[noname]

Being the "nonprofit's legal advisor" usually means that he/she
represents the nonprofit organization itself and does not represent
individual board members or members of the organization. In fact, it
could be an ethical violation for the attorney to represent (or give
legal advice to) both the organization and individual members regarding
matters related to the organization.

[LibrD...@aol.com]

Channing,

I agree it is a tricky situation. The legal advisor in this one case is also a member and is providing pro bono advice on the legal paperwork. The conflict comes when the legal advisor is asked by certain members to explain the law, which he feels is asking too much. You are right that he or the board needs to set up firm guidelines as to what should or should not be expected.

I also agree that it is not always a good idea to volunteer what one does for a living. I make my living as a librarian and love what I do professionally but when I volunteer, I like to use my other skills and interests. Doesn't always work out this way, though, and for some organizations, the volunteer work I do is similar to what I do at work.