About us

Baywide Community Law supports our community by enabling access to free legal services for people living along the Bay of Plenty coast, from Waihi to Cape Runaway.

We offer free legal information to everyone, and one-on-one legal advice to people on low incomes, with disabilities or other disadvantages.

We aim to empower our community by sharing legal knowledge, advice and education.

We are part of a network of community organisations that refer clients to each other so that people can access the assistance they need.

Wawata / Vision

Kia tika, kia pono, kia aroha ki Aotearoa

A fair and just Aotearoa

Baywide Community Law Charitable Trust is a registered charity and has been operating since 2005.

We are governed by a Board of Trustees who are committed to supporting the community by enabling access to free legal services.

You can find out more about our Board Members here

And read our Annual Report here

Baywide is one of 24 community law centres across Aotearoa and we are a member of our national body, Community Law Centres Aotearoa.

Community law centres operate in over 140 locations, providing free legal advice to over 50,000 clients and law-related education to over 30,000 people each year.

Te Ao Māori

We incorporate tikanga Māori into the services we provide and the way we work, including collaborating with other agencies that provide services to Māori.

Whakataukī / Proverb

Nāku te rourou, nāu te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket, the community will thrive

Donate

For many people, the time they are most in need of legal help is the time when they can least afford to pay for it.

All of our legal services are provided free of charge and we’re committed to doing as much as we can to work with those who most need our help.

If we’ve helped you and you are now able to help us by making a donation, or if you’re a community-minded organisation, business or individual who would like to support us in the work we do, we’d be very grateful for your contribution.

Baywide is a registered charity with donee status so any donation you make to us over $5 will be eligible for a deduction on your income tax – even if you make that donation anonymously.

Volunteer

Baywide Community Law receives support from a team of valued volunteers, including experienced legal practitioners, students and advocates.

Lawyers from Hobec, Sharp Tudhope and Copeland Ashcroft volunteer their time to provide legal advice at regular clinics, enabling Baywide to help as many people as possible with unmet legal needs.

We greatly appreciate the contribution that volunteers have made to our organisation, including assisting at our evening clinics. These clinics have not been operating since August 2021.

In response to Covid-19 we moved to providing legal advice via telephone and Zoom, as well as in-person. We consider that our clients’ needs are currently being met by the flexibility of these options and we have decided not to re-start our evening clinics at this stage.