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Must a nonprofit have a lawyer?

Your Legal Questions Answered

Must a nonprofit have a lawyer?

Is a nonprofit required to have a lawyer on retainer annually?

I wish I could answer “yes” to that question, but there is no legal requirement that a nonprofit, or any other business organization, have a lawyer on retainer or otherwise available for consultation.  It may not be wise to function with such blissful abandon, but no law prevents it.  The law may come into play, however, when you have to deal with the consequences of doing things on your own.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Comments

It may be useful to supplement your response by noting that in most if not all States, as well as in the federal courts, corporations (whether for-profit or not-for-profit) cannot appear in court pro se.   That does not mean, of course, that the litigator has to be on retainer, or on the board, but the corporation is unlikely to be able to avoid all contact with lawyer-advisers during its existence.

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