Pro Bono Not-For-Profit Honorary Counsel Scheme
The Gambia Legal Support Honorary Counsel Scheme provides free initial advice and longer-term legal support to small not-for-profit organisations such as NGOs, charities and community groups working in The Gambia.
The Honorary Counsel scheme matches small not-for-profit organisations with volunteer lawyers on a longer-term basis, to carry out legal health checks and to give legal advice when needed.
Our volunteers can advise on intellectual property, employment, property, tax, commercial/contract, insurance, insolvency, data protection, defamation, and company/charity law.
Legal Health Checks and Initial Advice
The Honorary Counsel will:
- carry out a high level Health Check of the organisation’s main documents to identify obvious gaps or general issues to be aware of to help prevent problems from arising at a later stage
- be a point of contact for initial, brief advice about potential legal issues that arise – a first port of call to give some direction on how issues might be dealt with.
- identify when further specialist legal advice would be needed and, where appropriate, be able to refer larger pieces of work (such as detailed reviews/drafting of documents) to the Gambia Legal Support free casework service.
Which Not-For-Profit Organisations Are Eligible?
NGOs, charities and community groups are eligible for the Honorary Counsel scheme if:
- You are a small not-for-profit organisation focussed on helping people who are in need in The Gambia.
- Your not-for-profit organisation cannot pay for legal advice, or would struggle to pay. We will ask about the organisation’s ability to pay for legal advice and look at the most recent accounts.
- You agree to our terms of service. These include being responsive and engaging with your Honorary Counsel and our evaluation processes.
For more information on our eligibility criteria and for some examples of not-for-profit organisations we give priority to, click here.
How To Apply
Applying for the Honorary Counsel scheme is simple:
- Check you are eligible. Click here.
- If you are eligible, complete our online application form which can be found here.
- Email us your latest accounts.
- We will then work with you to check your eligibility and gather relevant documents and information.
What happens once an application is approved?
If an application is approved, we will try to match your organisation with your own Honorary Counsel as soon as possible. This can be within a few days but it can sometimes take longer.
Specific legal assistance needed?
The Honorary Counsel scheme is for Health Checks and initial brief advice as problems arise.
If you need more in depth specialist advice about a specific legal issue you are facing now (such as drafting a contract, reviewing a lease, updating a constitution or articles, or clarifying rights in any other legal dispute), you should apply for our free legal assistance project instead. Find out more here.
Register With Us
If you have any questions about the Not-For-Profits Program.