Pro Bono

We had a volunteer event at work yesterday to provide pro bono legal advice to non profits.  A local law firm spent two hours training us and then we spent two hours with the non profit organization doing a legal risk analysis.

I worked with an organization that represents elderly and disabled folks living in public housing.  It was a great experience and tremendous learning for me.

I was completely outside my comfort zone going into the event but was given enough information to manage the situation with confidence.  It was another one of those events which made me feel so fortunate and happy to be able to give back a little bit.

These folks living in this public housing are an example of the people living in the margins of our society - they are old, disabled, poor and often don't even speak English.  And there are often substance abuse and mental health issues on top of that.

This particular organization had lost its non-profit status and I was able to get a plan in place to get them back on track for re-applying for that status and then put a process into place to ensure compliance with the reporting they need to do to maintain the status.

It was a good day for all involved.