Southeastern NY Library Resources Council (Southeastern or the Council) retains an attorney to offer Southeastern and its members timely input on human resources, intellectual property, digital rights management, vendor contracts, first amendment, civil rights, employment law, and other legal issues that can impact library operations.
Before completing the form, members should check the information-rich Recently Asked Questions (RAQs) on the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC) website. Another member may have already asked the same question! Schools or public libraries must check with your library systems before submitting an inquiry since your system may be best positioned to answer your question.
Unless you authorize otherwise, the matter will remain confidential between you and the Council, but if it must remain confidential to only your library, you should contact a lawyer directly and not utilize this service. With your authorization, responses from the Ask the Lawyer may come in the form of public commentary shared with the member who inquired and become part of a legal Recently Asked Questions (RAQs) on the WNYLRC website, a training session (in person or webinar), or a confidential memo shared only with the inquiring library and the Council liaison.
The Ask the Lawyer Request Form is not a guarantee that your inquiry will be answered by the attorney. If your inquiry is appropriate for the service, then the attorney will be directed to formulate a response to your inquiry. If the LOSA has a conflict of interest, or there is another reason it cannot be answered (for instance, if the Council staff feels the inquiry is asking for a specific legal nuance to an existing RAQ, or if the inquiry is highly specific to your institution) the law office and the Council will let you know that services will not proceed.
For immediate HR personnel-related questions, the Council will fund the initial response from the attorney but cannot guarantee any further financial support for legal services associated with the specific question.
Please complete the form in one sitting – the form can’t be saved to continue later. If you have documentation that would assist the attorney in answering your inquiry, you may upload files at the bottom of this form.
“Ask the Lawyer” is a trademark of the Empire State Library Network, whose members include the Western New York Library Resources Council and the eight other participating library councils: Capital District Library Council, Central New York Library Resources Council, Long Island Library Resources Council, Metropolitan New York Library Council, Northern New York Library Network, Rochester Regional Library Council, South Central Regional Library Council, and Southeastern New York Library Resources Council. All “Ask the Lawyer” answers are the copyright of author Stephanie Adams.