Four questions for Elizabeth David Dembrowsky from Good Counsel Services
By Matti Pousi
Elizabeth David Dembrowsky, Founder of Good Counsel Services
Our new partner organization, Good Counsel Services aims to ensure the financial and legal security of other nonprofits and social entrepreneurs through education, effort, and empowerment. As a nonprofit that receives funding from foundations, institutions, and individual donors, Good Counsel is able to provide affordable, quality legal services to its clients.
After graduating with a law degree from Brooklyn Law School, Elizabeth David Dembrowsky founded Good Counsel in 2016. She has also served as the Executive Director for Keren Or, Inc., the Jerusalem Center for Blind Children with Multiple Disabilities since 2012, a position that helped her understand the problems many small nonprofits face: an utter lack of invaluable legal support to help carry on their mission and hold their tax exempt status.
We had a chance to interview Elizabeth and asked her four questions about her daily work at Good Counsel Services.
What is the most interesting thing happening at Good Counsel right now?
Our team of volunteers and interns – a great group of students in high school, college, graduate school, law school, and several recent law school graduates, all working together to help us serve over 100 clients.
What is your day-to-day work like at Good Counsel? What role do your interns have?
Everyday is different – we try and balance direct client service work and creating resources that groups can access on their own. We are constantly looking for new support and meeting new partners. Also- our interns play a huge role and our program is lauded by our partners and participants and we are particularly proud of that. We ensure the students and volunteers grow and are challenged – and have fun doing it!
What is the most rewarding aspect about your work?
Serving a need that is unmet in our community and being able to fully use my skills about something I am passionate about – social impact startups and their inspiring leaders.
What are your hopes for Good Counsel's future?
I would love to see if hire full time staff within the next two years and have a dedicated office space where clients can meet confidentiality and also attend group sharing sessions. We also hope to more fully expand our work to all five boroughs and upstate New York as well.
