Free legal support for your social enterprise from the world’s best lawyers.
The Social Finance Hot Desk
The Social Finance Hot Desk (SFHD) is a unique service assisting top-tier city law firms to provide free pro bono and low cost support to social enterprises and charities.
SFHD is run by Prime Advocates, a not-for-profit, law firm and social finance consultancy with a passion to help social enterprises flourish. Prime builds partnerships with social enterprises and with law and professional services firms, enabling us to provide tailored pro bono opportunities for firms and high-quality legal support for enterprises.
The Social Finance Hot Desk acts as an intermediary between the enterprises and law firms by gathering information from both parties about their needs and preferences. Law firms communicate their preferred types types of pro bono legal work and social enterprises submit specific legal issues or questions through SFHD. Prime then matches enterprises with firms willing to take on their queries.
Our intermediary role provides firms with impactful pro bono work that meets their requirements, whilst at the same time ensuring firms do not have to worry about onboarding social enterprises.
“I can’t speak highly enough of the team at Prime Advocates - from their subject matter expertise to their professional approach. The Hot Desk has supported us during our recent investment round, and the continued relationship has resulted in both first-class support and big cost savings. ”
Eligibility
To apply for pro bono and low cost legal work you must be a social enterprise with proof of concept and asset or mission lock. We define eligible entities as:
A for-profit company with a defined social or environmental mission (meaning a commitment to allocate a percentage of its profits and assets to its mission)
A non-for-profit company with 100% dividend lock
A Community Interest Company (CIC)
Only rarely do we accept very early stage businesses. Demonstrating feasibility & viability of your business is essential.
To apply for legal support, send an email to the address below and our team will provide you with an application form.
How we work
How does SFHD work?
Prime Advocates, a registered non-profit law firm, manages the SFHD and acts as an intermediary between social enterprises and firms.
Both parties engage with Prime through the SFHD and benefit from expertise and efficient query management process.
Prime acts as the law firm’s only client, on-boarding and conducting due diligence on the enterprises, which removes inefficiencies of on-boarding several new pro bono clients.
Prime then provides curated legal matters to the legal teams based on the firm’s pro bono criteria and areas of capacity or thematic focus.
Finally, Prime shares the pro bono advice or support provided with the social enterprises.
How long does it take to receive a response to a query?
Response times vary based upon the nature of the legal query but normally take between 1-3 months to complete. SFHD sources queries that are not time-sensitive to ensure the most appropriate lawyers can take on the case. Most urgent matters are not suitable for this service.
What types of legal support and advice are undertaken?
Examples of legal support and advice may include:
Equity finance:
Drafting investment documentation such as term sheets, investment agreements, investment readiness legal support, new articles, convertible note instrument
Debt:
Documenting and advising on straightforward bilateral / syndicated and other lending facilities (Loans); including for acquisition finance transaction, leveraged buyouts, real estate and residential and commercial development and project and infrastructure financing
Sustainable or impact capital markets issuance and product development (e.g. charity bond, Green/ Sustainability Bonds or sustainable/ ESG securitization etc.)
Impact Investment Funds:
Advising impact investors and intermediaries on the formation and investment into impact funds, joint venture and downstream investments
Energy & Infrastructure:
Financing and investment documentation
Clean energy supply/client contracts or infrastructure development contracts, distribution agreements, emission reduction purchase agreements
Social Impact Bonds:
Negotiating with stakeholders on behalf of the client such as sponsors, investors, government bodies to determine the structure
Provide advice on the structure of social impact bonds
Preparing and negotiating outcomes contract and any other documents such as government backed guarantees
Charity Bond:
All documentation and negotiation involved in raising money on the bond market
General Corporate (limited capacity)
Legal audit risk review
General commercial work (i.e. service level agreements, governance support, NDAs, fee arrangement letters; amending legal structure from limited by shares to community interest company and transparently show commitment to repurposing profits for social purpose in articles)
Can I choose which firm I’d like to work with?
No. Part of the service that Prime Advocates provides to clients is to ensure they are best placed with the firm and solicitor most suitable for their case. We also discuss subject matters and practice areas in advance with the law firms to ensure that we are providing them with cases that suit their expertise.
Our Firm Partners
“The Social Finance Hot Desk saved our business a substantial amount of money, as a socially focused startup that was extremely valuable to us.”