Charity Lawyerwith expert lawyers

We offer a Not For Profit Consultation to guide you through your legal options as a charity or NFP.

If you want help setting up your business structure, we can also help you register as a charity, set up a company limited by guarantee, set up an incorporated association, and more.

Get in touch for a free, no-obligation chat to learn more about our services and get help deciding which legal path is right for you.

Yes, Sprintlaw has assisted many charities in the past and can help you set up your charity.

Sprintlaw operates in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. In Australia, Sprintlaw is a regulated law firm and an incorporated legal practice with number 32845, regulated by the Law Society of New South Wales.

In New Zealand and the UK, Sprintlaw operates as a legal consultancy rather than a traditionally regulated law firm. We chose to set up as a legal consultancy in New Zealand because it made our expansion into the New Zealand market faster and easier, reduced our compliance burden, and lowered our overhead costs when performing legal work. We are then able to pass these cost savings on to our clients, allowing us to provide high quality legal services at a fraction of the cost of traditional firms.

There are many similarities between Sprintlaw NZ's consultancy model and a traditional New Zealand law firm. Like a law firm, we offer legal services to small business clients across most of their regular legal needs, including drafting and reviewing contracts and providing legal and regulatory advice.

However, there are some important differences and limitations to be aware of.

Our lawyers: The legal services we provide in New Zealand are not provided by New Zealand-qualified lawyers. Our lawyers are Australian-qualified lawyers or UK-qualified lawyers who are familiar with New Zealand laws and requirements, and are able to provide high quality legal services to New Zealand businesses. Given the strong similarities between Australian, English, and New Zealand law, and the areas in which we practise, being small business and startup law, we do not view the fact that our lawyers are not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to providing high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Reserved areas: We are not permitted to provide services in reserved areas of law under section 6 and section 35 of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006. These include appearing in court or conducting litigation proceedings, managing conveyancing matters, or giving advice under the Property (Relationships) Act 1976. As such, Sprintlaw does not operate in these areas. We find these areas are rarely relevant to our small business clients seeking commercial legal advisory services.

Privilege: When working with traditional law firms, advice provided is considered privileged. This means that correspondence between a client and solicitor can, if made confidentially and for the purposes of legal advice, be withheld from a court or third party in connection with litigation proceedings. As Sprintlaw operates as a legal consultancy, certain advice we provide may not be privileged, and may instead be treated in the same way as advice from your accountant or another adviser who is not a regulated solicitor or barrister. This does not affect our confidentiality obligations to you, and our engagement letter confirms that any advice or discussions we have will be kept confidential. Because Sprintlaw does not operate in court-related or litigious matters, we find that privilege is rarely an issue for the kind of legal work we do.

Insurance: Sprintlaw is not required to have professional indemnity insurance that meets the New Zealand Law Society's minimum requirements. Regardless, Sprintlaw has chosen to maintain professional indemnity cover so our clients still benefit from insurance protection.

Yes, Sprintlaw can help you set up an Incorporated Association.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers who specialise in different areas of law and hold Australian legal practising certificates. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand-qualified lawyers, and they do not currently hold New Zealand practising certificates.

They provide legal services remotely from Australia through our legal consultancy model. Under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006, our Australian legal team can provide legal services to New Zealand businesses, provided they do not provide services in certain reserved areas of law.

You can read our FAQ page to learn more about our legal consultancy model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas in which we practise, being small business and startup law, we do not view the fact that our lawyers are not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to providing high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team trained at leading firms before leaving the traditional corporate law world to join us in creating a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law, and commercial law.