“Brazil is a hugely bureaucratic country. There are various tax, accountancy and labour laws that are all very complex so it’s very hard to be a non-profit organisation in Brazil" - charity
LONDON (TrustLaw) – When a group of outdoor instructors decided to launch a Brazilian branch of an international education charity in 2000, they knew they did not have the funds for legal advice.
So they went it alone, drawing up by-laws for the charity, Outward Bound Brasil, hiring staff and getting started on its core activities - taking young Brazilians into unfamiliar and challenging settings in the outdoors with the aim of building their self-confidence.
But the board members soon realised that negotiating Brazil’s minefield of laws and red tape without lawyers’ help was as much of a challenge as the long hikes offered to their participants.
“Brazil is a hugely bureaucratic country. There are various tax, accountancy and labour laws that are all very complex so it’s very hard to be a non-profit organisation in Brazil,” Claudia Vidigal, vice-president of Outward Bound Brasil and one of its instructors, told TrustLaw by telephone. “But legal support is very expensive.”
So when Brazilian law firm Xavier, Bernardes, Braganca (XBB) offered Outward Bound Brasil free legal advice and support, the non-profit jumped at the chance.
Lawyers at Sao Paulo-based XBB were just as keen to work with the charity, seeing its potential to transform lives in a country of huge divides between rich and poor and where poverty and a lack of opportunities often lead young people to drugs and crime.
“One of the main objectives of Outward Bound Brasil was to work with young offenders, trying to reincorporate them into society, helping them to develop their qualities,” said Patricia Lynch, a senior associate at XBB and one of the lawyers who worked on the project from the start.
“This was something that interested everyone. Violence is such a big problem in Brazil and this was something that could maybe work on reducing this violence,” she said by telephone from Sao Paulo.
PRO BRONO ON THE RISE
XBB’s lawyers are paid per hours worked and do as much or as little pro bono work as they want. They treat their pro bono clients with the same professionalism they offer to their paying clients, said Lynch. This was echoed by Vidigal, who said she and her colleagues were initially taken aback by how much time they were given and how well they were treated.
Pro bono has been around for a while in Brazil but seems to be expanding rapidly right now, said Lynch.
“It existed before but now is really the moment for pro bono in Brazil,” she said. “My feeling is that this is something that’s starting to gain much more importance in most law firms,” she added.
This could not be better news for charities trying to find a path through Brazil’s spider’s web of laws.
“There’s so much bureaucracy involved to be a non-profit in Brazil, so many requirements to meet, so many hoops to jump through,” Vidigal said.
XBB helped Outward Bound Brasil restructure internally to meet the country’s complex legal requirements so that it could benefit from tax breaks for non-profits and find the most tax-effective and accountable ways to manage donations.
Vidigal said XBB’s input has been invaluable throughout, but never so much as when an employee filed a lawsuit against the charity in 2009 which could have cost it a lot of money and even shut the whole operation down.
Outward Bound Brasil thought negotiations would go on for years and would be hugely costly, but XBB’s legal team helped board members strike a deal that was fair for both sides in a single conversation with the employee, Vidigal said.
“The legal support has been very valuable from the beginning, but last year it was decisive,” she added.
It has enabled the charity to get on with what they do best, helping to bring out the best in some of Brazil’s struggling young people, taking them on outdoor adventures where they are stretched physically and mentally, learn to work in teams and as individuals and develop practical skills such as orienteering or cooking in the wild.
“For many of them, it’s a totally different experience to anything they’ve done before and they come back believing in themselves more,” said Vidigal.
SOCIAL ACTION
XBB’s lawyers have given pro bono legal support to other Brazilian NGOs, including helping local residents in a deprived north-eastern Brazilian village set up a community association that would improve health, education and help tackle crime.
Itaporanga, in the state of Bahia, had just one small school which lacked materials and teachers. With scarce education facilities, children instead would turn to crime.
When residents decided to form an association, XBB provided them with lawyers from its corporate, tax, labour and litigation teams. It helped the association draw up its by-laws, register with the Brazilian authorities, benefit from tax incentives and create a watertight system for donations that would help the association build a new school.
“I think this help was vital to them,” said Bruno Maggi, a corporate lawyer at XBB who worked on the project.
For the lawyers, the experience was just as valuable.
“Legal advice is virtually out of reach for these people, so we are helping them,” he said. “We know there are lots of people in need.”
NGOs often contact XBB and other legal firms who offer pro bono work via Brazil’s Pro Bono Institute, a non-profit founded in 2001.
Other pro bono projects XBB’s lawyers are involved in include restructuring a faith-based non-profit which offers educational services and childcare so that it can access tax benefits, and acting on behalf of a Sao Paulo museum to evict a restaurant owner who was operating on its premises without a licence.
“We have quite a lot of flexibility to do as much pro bono work as we want,” said Lynch. “But there’s a general feeling amongst most of the employees that they’re excited to participate in pro bono projects.”
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
