Effective legal representation and advocacy in our time involves much more than making winning legal arguments. Indeed, for many impoverished or marginalized groups struggling with injustice, it is often easier to obtain legal assistance than the technical assistance and other ancillary services that can be critical to winning hard fought legal battles and making those victories meaningful in real terms.
Forum Nobis’ legal consulting practice is key to its mission of helping clients achieve justice in meaningful, cost-effective terms. Even where a client chooses to direct its own advocacy or rely on other counsel, Forum Nobis and its project partners are available to provide technical assistance, operational support, factual development, and other critical services.
Specific types of projects Forum Nobis can help with include:
- public policy research, report development, and related advocacy;
- human rights documentation efforts and related investigations;
- regulatory, code-of-conduct, supply chain, human rights due diligence, and other compliance investigations, as well as assessment of existing efforts and investigations;
- design and implementation of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Social Impact Assessments (SIAs), as well as assessment of existing EIAs and SIAs;
- fundraising, litigation finance, and financial resource management;
- preliminary factual investigation, including witness interviews, background issue research, country conditions research, public records research, expert identification and consultation;
- coordination of literature research on scientific, environmental, and medical topics and coordination of expert testimony (and non-testifying expert advice) in a range of fields, including environmental science generally, geology, hydrology, biology, anthropology, epidemiology, toxicology, medical specialties, economic analysis, and more;
- coordination of environmental field work, laboratory analysis, data analysis, and logistics services;
- assistance with damages assessments, including valuation and quantification of damages to complex assets such as ecosystem services, biodiversity, traditional knowledge and practices, cultural institution services, life cycle analysis of resources, and valuations of intellectual property and profitability, as well as related complex damage categories such as environmental impacts, mental pain and suffering, loss of earning potential, loss of opportunities, and more;
- investigation and assessment of potentially applicable environmental remediation technologies and methods;
- litigation support, electronic discovery management, trial and jury consulting;
- strategic risk mitigation investigation, research, and analysis;
- privacy and security analysis and related technology consulting;
- consulting regarding ethical, eco/green, and human rights-related indicators, indexes, ratings, and compliance metrics;
- corporate shareholder engagement strategies;
- executive management consulting focusing on inclusive decision-making and consensus-reaching strategies;
- operational management consulting focusing on workflow, productivity, and specialized campaign management;
- record-keeping, accounting, regulatory compliance, and related technology consulting;
- licensing and other intellectual property management;
- communications issues (public relations, media relations, government relations), media creation and publishing strategies, and related technology consulting.
Unless otherwise expressly stated in a retention agreement, Forum Nobis consulting services are provided in connection with legal representation and are subject to attorney-client privilege, attorney work product, and other confidentiality protections to the full extent permitted by law.