The Fundraiser

Hello, I'm Ed and, amongst other things, I'm Head of Legal at a FinTech company. I've been a corporate/commercial/tech lawyer since 2010, making the in-house move in April 2023.

Since becoming an in-house lawyer, I've joined several communities for in-house lawyers, and noticed how often basic company secretarial (CoSec) questions come up. While it's possible to Google questions or ask ChatGPT, there's sometimes an anxiety about relying on the responses provided by those tools, and for those new to the world of CoSec, I reckon that having a grounding in the basics of company law and CoSec practice would be hugely beneficial.

The Guide

I've written 'CoSec Basics for In-house Lawyers' - a user-friendly guide to the basics of company law and company secretarial practice. While it's impossible to escape technical jargon entirely, this guide explains what the jargon means and the surrounding concepts in a hopefully accessible way. My hope is that the guide will become a trusty reference for in-house lawyers charged with the task of handling CoSec for their organisations.

When you donate, the download link can be copied from the 'Thank you' message.

The Cause

I've always been a fan of sharing knowledge and content for free because (a) you get out what you put in; (b) I'm in a fortunate position where I have a solid job that pays my bills; and (c) I enjoy it! But at the same time, I feel that I've produced something of value and I'd love to see that value been turned into something positive.

I've therefore chosen to donate 100% of the proceeds from selling the guide to LawCare.

LawCare is an independent charity working to promote good mental health and wellbeing in legal workplaces and drive change in education, training and practice. This is desperately needed in the legal profession right now; while awareness of mental health challenges has greatly improved, progress is too slow. There's a good chance that right now as you're reading this, there's a legal professional in the middle of a mental health crisis.

Money raised for LawCare will help them continue to provide emotional support on the phone and online for legal professionals struggling with their mental health issues. It will also help them to carry out research to better understand the factors that contribute to poor mental health in the legal professions, so they can address these issues in the public interest and influence change in the culture.

The Goal

I've sent an initial goal of £575 which, according to LawCare's website, represents the cost of running their support service for one day. I'd obviously love to smash this target, but it seems like a good place to start! The goal would be reached if 46 people donated £12.50 each!