Volunteer Lawyer Services is a program aimed at providing eligible charitable organizations with pro bono (free) legal services and advice in a range of areas such as:

• Labour and Employment law
• Administrative/Human Rights law
• Management/Board Responsibilities
• Real Estate
• Civil Litigation
• Trust and Estates

The services of VLS may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Addressing your staffing and employment issues
• Assessing your board's exposure to legal risks
• Exploring and addressing liability issues
• Negotiating a property purchase or lease
• Copyrighting or trademarking your intellectual property
• Drafting a privacy statement for your brochures, websites, etc.
• Reviewing by-laws
• Reviewing waivers and contracts

In order to be eligible for these services your organization must:

• Be registered as a charity or be an organization whose mission is for charitable purposes as defined under the Income Tax Act; or
• Be registered as a non-profit society as defined under the Societies Act; or
• Be in the process of applying for registration as a charitable organization or non-profit society;

and

• Be able to demonstrate an inability to pay any amount for legal advice and services excluding acceptable disbursements.

Please note that an organization can complete the process of applying for charitable status without the help of a lawyer.

• Click here or here for general information on how to begin registering your charity
• For general information about registering charities, societies and non-profit organizations in Alberta, click here and here

To learn about the application process, click here.

PLEASE NOTE THAT VLS CANNOT:

• Place volunteer lawyers on a Board of Directors or any other Board.
• Act for any agency or organization whose mandate is politically partisan or activist in nature.
• VLS lawyers cannot do any work that risks affecting the civil liberties or well-being of others.