Hedman Partners is advising the Estonian Uuskasutuskeskus (the "Re-Use Center") on employment and labor law issues to help the NGO revise its employment contracts with its staff.
Katriin Juriska, the CEO of Uuskasutuskeskus, said that the organization has been expanding its activities successfully to include five re-use shops in Tallinn, Tartu and Parnu. “We had to rely on external professional advice to manage employment risks during the expansion phase and also to ensure full compliance with the latest employment and labor law changes,” she explained.
Uuskasutus is a non-profit and independent social undertaking established in 2004 by the Good Deed Foundation. Its objective is to put used things back in circulation and to make re-use and re-design easily accessible and commonplace for everyone in Estonia. The organization works in close co-operation with the Estonian Association of Families with Many Children, the Dharma Foundation, shelters, fire victims and the social departments of many local authorities.
The Good Deed Foundation is the only venture philanthropy organization in the Baltics, concentrating on supporting high-impact social initiatives (both social enterprises and non-profits). The foundation’s achievements include both achieving systemic change (state-level adoption support system for children without parental care) and starting off successful social enterprises (in the fields of: employment for people with disabilities; HIV-prevention; re-use). The organization’s portfolio includes such spin-offs as Youth to School program to solve educational problems, Health Estonia Foundation for HIV-prevention and the Re-use Center to promote sustainable consumption.
Hedman Partners’ Managing Partner Merlin Salvik believes that social responsibility is an integral part of the law firm’s corporate philosophy. “We are happy to invest our time and know-how to help charity organizations and NGOs, because a third sector based on a solid and transparent foundation is a great asset to the society,” added Salvik.
In a formal statement on the firm's website, Hedman Partners claims that, "according to a cooperation agreement between the Good Deed Foundation and the Estonian Bar Association, Estonia’s leading law firms are providing more and more pro bono legal advice to third sector organizations, because most NGOs lack the means to bring their activities to compliance with all the latest legal acts on their own."
