Re: WHO KNOWS AN AMERICAN LAWYER?/online cheap set up?

[Guest guest]

Dear ,

Thank you for volunteering to help carry out the necessary

administration once we are up and running.

Your comments on the difficulties of setting up in the UK are well

taken. I too feel that since the majority of us live in the US, that

is the logical place to set up the Foundation.

While Ca. is indeed crawling with lawyers, I have found that those who

claim to offer pro bono services seem to be involved in other areas of

legal representation:

http://www.acca.com/chapters/socal/probono/websites.php

I agree that with our Group as large as it is, surely there must be a

member who knows a Ca. lawyer. (or a US lawyer, as the corporation

may be set up in any state where a member lives .)

While this seems like a huge challenge for anyone without legal

training, I have a feeling it is more a question of completing all

forms correctly and submitting them in proper order. A lawyer who is

familiar with this sort of set up would probably zip through it rather

quickly.

Again, I wonder if we might use a service such as:

http://foundationgroup.com/content.asp?CID=21508

The price certainly is right. Am I missing something? How can one firm

charge $10,000 and another do the same for $250? Perhaps they are

simply efficient at what they do and have the process down to filling

in the blanks.

Love,

> ---------------------------------

> Dear Group,

>

> I just had a phone conversation with Sherry ,

> attorney with Silk,

> Adler and Colvin the law firm I emailed yesterday.

>

> Unfortunately was correct in that they do not

> take pro bono clients.

>

> Sherry told me that her firm has a discounted rate of

> ONLY $275/hr for

> an attorney and $200/hr. for an associate. She said

> the usual cost is

> $10,000 to set up a non-profit corp. We both agreed we

> were not

> prepared to spend that kind of money.

>

> A suggestion was to locate a volunteer legal services

> that may be

> sponsored by the Bar Association.

>

> I did find a local legal firm that may help us:

>

> http://www.swlaw.com/offices/orange_county.asp

>

> http://www.swlaw.com/aboutus/probono.asp

>

> Sherry also suggested a situation that is similar to

> NORD's. She was

> not familiar with NORD and when I explained it she

> said it sounded

> quite good.

>

> Another suggestion was to find a Community Foundation

> that would grant

> us funds for research but we'd have to locate the

> researcher and

> contrubute to their Foundation. Sherry said these

> grants would be for

> small amounts under $500,000!

>

> So we are left with looking for a local law firm that

> will take us on

> as pro-bono clients. Perhaps Snell and Wilmer is it.

>

> OR: I wonder if it would be easier and much quicker to

> simply set up a

> bank account and collect funds until we accumulate

> enough to give to

> NORD and let them do the work of finding the

> researcher for their

> current fee of $5,000.

>

> This method will not provide tax exemptions on funds

> collected from

> donors who may require it. Indeed larger donors may

> dismiss us out

> of hand if they can't get a " tax break " . I don't know

> if we can even

> set up a bank account for the name of the EN

> Foundation if we don't

> have an employers ID number (EIN) which is usually

> obtained after

> incorporation according to what I've read. It would

> probably have to

> be done on trust alone. And whomever set up the

> account would have to

> pay income tax on the interest--probably not much as

> we'd only need to

> keep the account until we reached an amount where we

> could hand it

> over to NORD.

>

> , as an attorney, could you set our EN foundation

> up in the UK?

> If you required remuneration, what would it cost?

> When I mentioned to

> Sherry that we had members in many nation and

> especially the UK, she

> said " well then you aren't limited to the US " . That is

> my feeling too.

>

> Love,

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

> ---------------------------------

>