Lawyers use their expertise to support the Conquer COVID-19 enterprise
Having a legal background is very beneficial in running a charity, according to Enbridge Gas senior legal counsel, Guri Pannu. Pannu joined forces with six friends to create Conquer COVID-19 - a volunteer-driven charity focused on providing personal protective equipment to frontline healthcare workers across Canada during the pandemic.
Since its launch in March, the enterprise has grown to a team of 120 volunteers from varied industries who have helped to raise money and ship PPE including gloves, masks, hand sanitizer and medical gowns, as well as supplies such as diapers and baby formula, to the healthcare community.
“We all have a burning desire to do something about the pandemic, rather than just sit and watch numbers,” says Pannu. “Having a legal background has really helped in terms of understanding risks and pitfalls while also trying to do a good thing.”
Since the launch of Conquer COVID-19, two other lawyers joined Pannu to offer their legal expertise to the cause - Fatema Dada, counsel at Ontario Human Rights Commission, and Khalid Elgazzar, a solo practitioner.
“I sit on two other boards, so I find that board-level experience really helpful,” says Dada. “As lawyers, we have a lens of being able to critically look at something and take the emotions out. We also know the need to be diligent and to paper the records and to get formal legal advice when needed to help protect the organization. The three of us have been working to protect our peers who have put so many hours into this effort.”
Elgazzar has also been able to use his litigation skills to help avoid potential exposure for the board and for volunteers.
“We were answering questions on a daily basis about distribution and waivers and paperwork,” he says.
Pro bono advice has also been provided by Ebad Rahman, partner at Torys LLP and Fahad Siddiqui, a lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright. Other volunteers include physicians, business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Through donations, corporate sponsorships, and the sale of t-shirts, the organization has raised $2.3 million to date and sold 22,000 Conquer COVID-19 t-shirts. All proceeds go towards the purchase of PPE. In eight weeks, the charity delivered approximately 576,000 items of PPE to 54 cities across Canada in five provinces.
