Overview

Legal support is a critical component to the ultimate success of many citizen sector organizations. Though currently, most citizen sector organizations work without access to quality legal assistance. This has left many Ashoka Fellows and other organizations faced with a major barrier when trying to expand and institutionalize their programs. To confront this challenge head on, Ashoka has created Advocates for Social Entrepreneurs (ASE) to develop the pro bono legal culture around the world to support social entrepreneurs.

The ASE network mobilizes law firms and public interest lawyers to support the hundreds of Ashoka Fellows around the globe and eventually the broader networks of social entrepreneurs by providing them access to legal professionals who can help them navigate the legal environment to enhance institution building, policy change, and support human rights through domestic and international pro bono legal assistance.

ASE developed in 2003 when Senior Ashoka Fellow, OscarVilhena Vieira, and Ashoka Board Member Bill Kelly came together and realized that an existing yet disconnected, group of Ashoka Fellows were in need of legal services to excel their current work and receive assistance in approaching issues of public policy. At the same time there were identified lawyers seeking high impact clients to build their pro bono programs. The realization led to the idea of bringing together these two groups to create an organized network able to leverage domestic and international scales of legal services targeted at servicing Ashoka Fellows. (Please see Appendix 4 for examples of successful matches between Ashoka Fellows and ISLP made globally)

To move forward with the idea India Ashoka Fellow Colin Gonsalves, the Ashoka Law For All Initiative, Ashoka Fellowship Support Services and Ashoka partner International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP) were brought into the conversation. The addition of Pro Bono Net provided the missing key ingredient -- the proven capacity to share ideas, work product and contacts via the Internet. Over the course of 2005, this collaboration evolved into Advocates for Social Entrepreneurs (ASE), a global program successfully piloted and launched in three countries (Brazil, India and Poland), with continued expansion planned for late 2006. Below is an outline of ASE’s developing vision and India program.

The Problem/Opportunity

Most social entrepreneurs, including Ashoka Fellows, are struggling to build capacity to grow their enterprises. In many cases, they do not have adequate legal representation to develop and spread their transformative ideas in the most effective manner. They face significant challenges in making effective changes due to their lack of knowledge and experience with the legal environment. In addition, a number of the social enterprises involve the provision of legal services including human rights litigation, legal aid, organizational planning and program implementation. ASE was created on the premise that pro bono and public interest lawyer energy should be linked to the social agenda of Ashoka Fellows and harnessed principally for the promotion of social change.

The Solution

ASE’s strategy is to create a network of domestic and international public interest and pro bono lawyers to provide services to Ashoka Fellows and their organizations. Ashoka Fellows represent high quality clients due to the rigor of the Ashoka Fellow selection process. Positive initial engagements are key to the long-term success of the pro bono movement because they offer rewarding experiences that will ensure that pro bono and public interest advocates volunteer again and again. In turn, the ASE network provides an important service to help Ashoka Fellows, and ultimately other social entrepreneurs, increase their impact through a deeper understanding and engagement with the legal world.

ASE has launched in Brazil, India and Poland and with assistance from legal partners has provided pro bono assistance to Ashoka Fellows in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Nepal, Thailand and the United States.

ASE India, launched in November 2005, is headquartered in Bangalore and staffed by one full time employee and receives the assistance of legal volunteers. ASE India has the immediate to short term focus of five key goals:

• Engaging the lawyers: ASE is focused on developing legal practice partners within India. To date ten have been formed. The immediate to short term geographic focus will be in the most populated cities: Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkota.
• Identifying the Need : ASE will identify and document the legal needs of Ashoka Fellows

• Making the matches: ASE will facilitate twenty pro bono lawyer / Ashoka Fellow matches in 2006-2007. To date three matches have been made covering a wide range of legal services. ASE will continue to work with both the pro bono partner and Ashoka Fellow during and after the match to assure quality work and high impact.
• Building out the website: The ASE website is a knowledge bank of information pertaining to legal issues faced by social entrepreneurs and the pro bono practice. To date the ASE website (www.ashokaprobono.net) has been developed and launched. Knowledge tools are currently being developed and uploaded for use by the legal and citizen sector. Knowledge tools include legal briefs, relevant laws, case studies, guides such as how to file Public Interest Litigation, and links to relevant websites.
• Creating the Advisory Council: An India Advisory Council will be created to help guide and grow ASE. The short term goal is to build a council of four diverse and prominent members of the India legal community. Currently, ASE has approached and received commitments from two council members – Mr. Sandeep Farias who started the social sector practice of Nishith Desai Associates and Mr. LalithBhasin the Secretary of the Bar Association of India and President of the Society of Indian Law Firms.