Nonprofit Partnership «Lawyers for Civil Society»

Nonprofit Partnership Lawyers for Civil Society (LCS), established in 2006, unites highly qualified lawyers specializing in not-for-profit law. Forty-four lawyers from regions across the Russian Federation – from Kaliningrad to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky provide free legal advice to the country s civil society organizations. Since October 2006, LCS lawyers have provided more than 25,000 legal consultations. They have also organized or presented at hundreds of seminars and roundtables aimed at increasing the legal literacy of Russian NGOs.

LCS has implemented seven large-scale projects intended to provide legal support to Russian NGOs and to facilitate constructive dialogue between Russian state bodies and civil society organizations. For example, the initiative «Research on Legal Mechanisms for Dialogue between Civil Society and State Authorities» provided a regularly updated database of the regional legislation, so called Legislation Map, that can be found on http://map.lawcs.ru.

LCS also participates in international activities and has partnered with organizations such as the Council of Europe s Conference of International Non-Governmental Organizations and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL).