According to extensive research by the American Bar Association, adequate legal services are not reaching low-income and moderate-income people. Insufficient financial resources and lack of legal knowledge stand as barriers to adequate legal services (“Report on the Future of Legal Services in the United States,” American Bar Association, 2016, 10-15.) Good Counsel is part of the movement to break down these financial and knowledge-based barriers in order to increase access to legal services, specializing in business and entrepreneurial needs. Because we are a nonprofit that receives funding from foundations, institutions, and individual donors, we are able to provide our clients with affordable, quality legal services and education.

 

          Without proper support, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs are exposed to legal and financial risks that can endanger their important socially driven work. Much of legal work can be reactive, however we believe in a preventive legal philosophy- we set our clients up for success from the very beginning stages of their venture in order to safeguard their success in accomplishing both their social mission and business goals. We help our clients discover and set up the legal structures that fit best with their emerging venture and that will protect their safety and interests in the future. Through our work for our clients during the incubation and early stages of their ideas, we prevent conflicts instead of just responding to them.