Free Wills & Powers of Attorneyfor Frontline Covid-19 Workers
April 19, 2020 to August 21, 2020
As part of this initiative, Lexpand completed
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This initiative ended on August 21, 2020 and is no longer available.
What did Lexpand do as part of the Frontline Legal Support initiative?
When did the initiative take place?
In the summer of 2020, in an effort to support community members on the frontlines of Covid-19, Lexpand offered free Wills and Powers of Attorney to Frontline Covid-19 Workers across Ontario. Our involvement with the initiative began on April 19, 2020 and concluded on August 21, 2021.
What did we do during the initiative?
As part of this initiative, we completed 218 Wills and 382 Powers of Attorney on a pro-bono basis. This work is valued at $122,700 on the basis of our fees for preparation of Wills and Powers of Attorney.
Why did we get involved?
Our frontline health care workers have been risking their lives on a daily basis to save ours and this was our way to show our appreciation for their sacrifices.
Which lawyers from Lexpand were involved with the initiative?
While everyone at Lexpand supported the initiative, the following two lawyers ran the frontline initiative at the firm:
How did we do all this work?
In an effort to provide this service to as many frontline Covid-19 health care workers as possible, we put together a volunteer summer program for first and second-year law students and reached out to all law schools across Canada to recruit our team.
Who were the students that helped us with the initiative?
The following law students assisted us with the initiative on a volunteer basis:
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- Cailyn Prins – University of Toronto
- Camille Lustiere – McGill University
- Kinsey Furniss – University of Victoria
- Michael Grivich – Western Law
- Safa Bajwa – University of Toronto
- Sophie Chitiz – University of Toronto
- Tresa Zacharia – University of Toronto
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Did our students receive any compensation?
The short answer is no. At the time, the Government of Canada had announced that it was going to launch the Canada Student Service Grant (CSSG) to provide up to $5,000.00 for education costs to students who serve their community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While some of the details of the CSSG had still not been released, given the nature of our initiative and the value that it offered to the community, we were certain that the CSSG would cover our initiative once all of its details were released. We therefore didn’t wait for the details to be released and hit the ground running on May 4, 2020.
Unfortunately, the CSSG ended up being at the core of the WE Charity controversy and was abandoned by the Government of Canada.
Because of this, our hardworking students did not receive the compensation that they had initially been promised by the Canadian Government.
Why did we end the initiative on August 21, 2020?
We loved every moment of our involvement with the frontline initiative. It was by far one of the most rewarding experiences we’ve had as part of our professional careers. It opened our eyes to the sacrifices that our frontline workers were making on a daily basis and nothing felt better than helping them. So why did we stop? We are a small firm with limited resources and while we would have loved to continue to help our frontline workers, our summer students had to go back to school and we were no longer able to provide the service on a pro-b0no basis.
Will we be having similar initiatives in the future?
Yes. We strongly believe in supporting the community and plan to be involved in similar initiatives in the future.
How did we help the Frontline Workers?
We prepared wills and powers of attorney for them free of charge
using our simple Will & POA preparation process:
Hire Us
Click on the Hire Us Now button on this page or contact us at estates@lexpand.com to retain us.
Complete Intake Form
We will provide you with access to our comprehensive electronic intake form which will allow you to express your wishes.
Video Conference
We will schedule a conference call to discuss your wishes and provide you with recommendations on how best to hold your assets.
Receive Documents
We will send you the draft Wills and Powers of Attorney that we prepare based on your instructions.
Ask Questions
You will be able to ask any questions you may have about the documents that we have provided to you.
Sign Will
You will proceed with signing the Wills and the Powers of Attorney in the presence of 2 witnesses.
Lexpand’s Will Preparation Intake Form
As part of our service you will have an opportunity to interact with our comprehensive wills preparation intake form. Our Wills are extremely customizable and are meant to reflect your specific wishes. When using our intake form you will be able to tell us exactly how you wish to divide your assets.
Wills & Estates Law
At our wills and estates department we focus our attention on understanding your circumstances and crafting an effective estate plan for you. A Will and a Power of Attorney are only two of the many estate planning tools that are available to individuals. They should be drafted in light of the bigger estate planning picture and after determining whether other tools such as a family or a spousal trust might be beneficial to you. We use a lot of technology in providing legal services. We will provide you wish access to our client portal which will allow you to log in, view and download your documents, track the progress made on your file and communicate with us directly from the portal with respect to your file. When preparing a Will for you we will also provide you with a comprehensive asset list which you can share with your executors and beneficiary. Our real estate practice complements our wills and estates practice. Often times in devising a state plan we determine that it might be beneficial to complete certain transfers of title in which case our colleagues in the real estate department come to our assistance.