Background: In order to foster individual and organizational resilience, particularly under uncertain economic conditions, all staff are encouraged to cultivate economic opportunities outside of the Law Center. Such opportunities can help to sustain staff if the organization ever has a lean year or if the staff member ever needs to leave. Additionally, for staff who want to earn higher incomes than what the Law Center can offer, outside economic opportunities can supplement their salary. Such outside opportunities may include taking private clients, taking paid teaching or speaking engagements, taking paid writing opportunities, and activities that do not directly generate income, such as participation in childcare cooperatives, community food-growing, housing cooperatives, carsharing, or other activities that help meet economic needs.

Policy: In order to manage the risk of conflicts of interest or inappropriate private benefit, staff shall adhere to the following rules, and the General Circle shall appoint an Economic Opportunity Committee (“EOC”) of at least two staff members.

Staff shall evaluate the appropriateness of an outside economic opportunity as follows:

1. Four Potentially Problematic Situations and How to Address Them:
   1. Conflict of opportunity: Establish that the Law Center is clearly not contemplating taking that client (you find that out from the client spreadsheet and by checking with the most relevant Circle). For example, if the client initially approached the Law Center, simultaneously approached the Law Center, or was initially confused about staff’s affiliation, then staff should check the client spreadsheet and ask the relevant Circle to ensure that the organization is not contemplating taking that client. (See Client Relations Policy for more info on communicating with clients in this situation).
   2. Conflict of client: Establish that:
      1. Staff member is not privately representing a client with interests that are adverse to an organizational client, and
      2. The Law Center has not obtained confidential information that could be used to benefit the staff member’s private client.
      3. Legal Cafe clients do not count under this paragraph (2), unless the staff member in question learned information from a Legal Cafe client that could be used to benefit the private client.
   3. Conflict of issue or advocacy: Establish that staff is not privately advising an organization on policy that the Law Center is actively opposing, or is highly likely to actively oppose.
   4. Intentional or direct private benefit: Establish that the Law Center did not refer the client directly and solely to the staff person, and did not urge the client to hire that staff person. Establish that the Law Center interacted with the client in a way that was intended to serve the client's best interest, which will almost always mean giving potential clients a list of many other legal resources and service providers, and urging the client to shop around. If the Law Center provides multiple referrals, urges the client to shop around, and if the client ultimately chooses to hire a staff member, the private benefit will be incidental, and likely not problematic.
2. Steps to Communicating with EOC: If you are contemplating accepting an outside economic opportunity and there is potential that any conflict of interest or direct private benefit could arise, take the following steps:
   1. Obtain your potential client’s permission, if needed: First, if you need to reveal anything confidential, get permission from your client first. Otherwise, plan to communicate with the EOC in ways that do not violate your client’s confidentiality. If it is not possible to obtain permission from your client to speak about the issue with the EOC, and if any of the above types of conflicts or issues may exist, you are strongly encouraged to decline the opportunity. We expect this to be quite rare, since most clients will understand that you will need to share some basic details in order to check for possible conflicts. Then...
   2. Consult with any member of the EOC: The EOC member will give input and help weigh various factors and options with you, to help you make a decision about how to proceed. Feel free to consult with other EOC members at this point if you need additional input. If, after discussion with an EOC member, you and the EOC member feel that the issue remains in a grey area and there is not a clear path forward, then...
   3. Consult with whole EOC committee: Email or organize a conversation with all members of the EOC. If that conversation doesn’t result in a clear path forward, and if this economic opportunity is important to you, then...
   4. Request that the Board of Directors consider the issue: Email the Board or ask the Board for a short phone call to consider the matter. The Board will make the final decision. The Board may prohibit you from taking the client or outside economic opportunity only if doing so has the potential to harm the Law Center by creating a direct and unmanageable conflict of interest, conflict of issue, conflict of opportunity, or appearance of inappropriate private benefit.

(EOC)