Inspired by the recent legal discussions on foundation-l, I've had an idea for something the chapter could usefully do. It's not something we'll be able to do any time soon (it would certainly require a bank account! [any progress on that recently?]), but I'll probably forget it, so I'll suggest it now.
We should hire a lawyer. In addition to handling legal stuff for the chapter they would be able to advise the foundation and appropriate communities (where practical) on issues of UK law. Currently the foundation's only legal expert, Mike, is purely a US lawyer and, AFAIK, has no experience with other jurisdictions. That's not a great situation for a foundation involved in activities all over world. Obviously, the WMF cannot hire a lawyer from every country in the world, but individual chapters can hire lawyers for their country and offer their services to the foundation. I think doing so would be an excellent use of chapter funds (once we have some, that is).
I'm pretty sure that we could find a lawyer who might do this pro-bono.
Ian On Mon, 2008-04-07 at 17:33 +0100, Thomas Dalton wrote:
Inspired by the recent legal discussions on foundation-l, I've had an idea for something the chapter could usefully do. It's not something we'll be able to do any time soon (it would certainly require a bank account! [any progress on that recently?]), but I'll probably forget it, so I'll suggest it now.
We should hire a lawyer. In addition to handling legal stuff for the chapter they would be able to advise the foundation and appropriate communities (where practical) on issues of UK law. Currently the foundation's only legal expert, Mike, is purely a US lawyer and, AFAIK, has no experience with other jurisdictions. That's not a great situation for a foundation involved in activities all over world. Obviously, the WMF cannot hire a lawyer from every country in the world, but individual chapters can hire lawyers for their country and offer their services to the foundation. I think doing so would be an excellent use of chapter funds (once we have some, that is).
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On 07/04/2008, Ian A Holton poeloq@gmail.com wrote:
I'm pretty sure that we could find a lawyer who might do this pro-bono.
There are limits to how much you can ask of and rely on a volunteer. As an interim measure, it's a good idea, though.
I have a friend who's qualified as a barrister who may be interested in helping out, but he wants to know in more detail what kind of problems you envisage wanting his help with. (I'm sorry if this was obvious from the foundation-l discussion, I unsubscribed in despair at the volume of nonsense that list generates these days.)
Tom
-----Original Message----- From: wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediauk-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Dalton Sent: 07 April 2008 17:33 To: wikimediauk-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: [Wikimediauk-l] Proposal for future goal of the chapter
Inspired by the recent legal discussions on foundation-l, I've had an idea for something the chapter could usefully do. It's not something we'll be able to do any time soon (it would certainly require a bank account! [any progress on that recently?]), but I'll probably forget it, so I'll suggest it now.
We should hire a lawyer. In addition to handling legal stuff for the chapter they would be able to advise the foundation and appropriate communities (where practical) on issues of UK law. Currently the foundation's only legal expert, Mike, is purely a US lawyer and, AFAIK, has no experience with other jurisdictions. That's not a great situation for a foundation involved in activities all over world. Obviously, the WMF cannot hire a lawyer from every country in the world, but individual chapters can hire lawyers for their country and offer their services to the foundation. I think doing so would be an excellent use of chapter funds (once we have some, that is).
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