Lawyers available for work-related issues

A) Legal support for dues-paying members

i) Legal information

For dues-paying members of the Staff Union, external lawyers are available to provide a designated number of free consultations.

ii) Legal representation

For dues-paying members, the Union may also decide to cover a set amount of the fees for legal representation by an external lawyer.

Eligibility requirements for applying for funds for private legal representation include:

The staff member must have been a dues-paying member for at least six months prior to the application for funds.
In the case of newly recruited staff, they must have become a dues-paying member upon recruitment.
A request for assistance must be submitted in writing and addressed to (any member of) the Staff Committee (the executive committee of the Staff Council) or to the assistant to the Staff Union. The Staff Committee will decide whether to provide the established coverage amount, based on its internal procedures.

The Staff Union strongly encourages all dues-paying staff seeking legal support and representation to first consult the free services of the Office of Staff Legal Assistance (OSLA).

Dues-paying members may elect to seek Staff Committee funding support for an external lawyer regardless of any OSLA determination or willingness to represent the staff member.

B) Legal support for non-dues-paying members

i) Legal representation

The Staff Committee may decide to waive the requirement that a staff member be dues-paying for the minimum required duration, and may offer an exceptional grant of legal support based on the following criteria:

The staff members complaint is deemed to be in the wider interest of staff or a particular category of staff;
Providing legal support to the staff member would be in the interests of serving the cause of justice generally; and
The staff member has first sought the legal support and representation of OSLA and has been denied further OSLA representation.

In such cases, the Staff Committee will consider offering a designated grant to cover a portion of the legal fees through the “support fund” (see below).

C) Legal support for affiliate personnel

The Staff Council has established a separate “Support Fund” in order to provide assistance to affiliate personnel (e.g. consultants, individual contractors, UN Volunteers, Interns). It is funded from Gift Shop profits (15% of annual profit is transferred into the account every year), i.e. no membership dues are used for this Fund.

The Staff Committee uses the Fund to pay for portions of private legal assistance of affiliate personnel and non-dues paying members, when justified by the above-mentioned reasons. The same guidelines above apply to the use of the Support Fund for affiliate personnel.

United Nations

UNOV/UNODC Staff Union

Lawyers available for work-related issues

Legal support available for Union members and affiliate personnel

A) Legal support for dues-paying members

B) Legal support for non-dues-paying members

C) Legal support for affiliate personnel

LAWYERS AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATIONS ON WORK-RELATED ISSUES