About the Role
We’re building a small network of lawyers across Asia who will help us campaign boldly and lawfully. This is not a staff position: you advise on specific requests as they come up, either pro bono or paid by the hour.
We’re looking for advisors in mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Work is remote.
About Asia Accountability Initiative
Asia Accountability Initiative (AAI) works with local advocates to hold companies to their animal welfare commitments across Asia. Hundreds of hotel, food and restaurant companies have publicly pledged to use only cage-free eggs. Many are behind or have quietly excluded Asian markets, and we help hold them to account.
We closely support six country accountability initiatives, in China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Most of our work focuses on cage-free egg commitments: making sure companies deliver what they have promised. Our work combines direct engagement with companies, public campaigns, media work and a network of more than 5,000 digital volunteers.
In mainland China we don’t run traditional public pressure campaigns. We look for creative approaches that fit the local context, and we need advice that is realistic about what is possible there.
Why Work With Us
A few hours of your time can help change how millions of animals live.
- Impact at scale. Asia produces more than half of the world’s eggs, and most hens here are still confined in battery cages. When a multinational keeps its cage-free promise, the change reaches every farm in its supply chain across the region.
- High leverage. Good legal advice is often the difference between a campaign that launches and one that stays on the shelf. A short review from you can unlock months of our team’s work.
- A gap only you can fill. Very few lawyers in the region advise animal advocates. Your expertise would go where it is scarce and needed.
- Interesting work. Questions sit where media, consumer, NGO and corporate law meet, often with no clear precedent.
- Recognition and community. With your permission, we’ll credit you or your firm as a pro bono partner, and connect you with the wider animal advocacy movement in Asia.
How We Think About Legal Risk
We want an advisor who helps us find a lawful way to do something, not just reasons not to do it.
Campaigning for corporate accountability carries some legal risk by nature. We name companies publicly, criticise their track record, and ask the public to act. We accept reasonable, well-understood risk to make progress for animals. What doesn’t work for us is advice that rejects anything with any risk at all.
For each request, we’d ask you to tell us:
- How risky it is (low, medium or high) and why.
- The realistic worst case and how likely it is, for example a demand letter, a lawsuit, or a regulator or police response.
- What changes would lower the risk while keeping the message intact.
We make the final decision on what risk to take, informed by your advice.
What You’d Do
- Review campaign materials before release: press releases, campaign webpages, social media posts, ads, petitions and video scripts. You’d flag issues such as defamation, use of company names and logos, parody, and claims we need to be able to prove.
- Give general guidance on what is and isn’t allowed in your jurisdiction, including protests and public stunts, permits, volunteer activities, and collecting supporter data through petitions and sign-ups.
- Help us respond when a company pushes back, for example a letter from their lawyers, and tell us when we need formal representation.
- In future, advise on registering a local nonprofit entity, including rules on NGO registration and foreign funding.
Materials are usually in the local language. We’d like your advice in English.
Who We’re Looking For
We welcome applications from individual lawyers, law firms and their pro bono teams, and legal clinics or legal NGOs.
You should have:
- A licence to practise in one of the jurisdictions above (for firms and clinics, qualified lawyers who would do the work).
- Experience in at least one of: media and defamation, advertising or intellectual property, NGO and civil society law, public assembly or human rights, or corporate law.
- A belief that civil society has a legitimate role in holding companies to account.
- The ability to give clear, practical written advice in English, quickly.
- No conflict of interest with the companies we campaign on (mostly large hotel, food and restaurant groups), or a willingness to tell us upfront.
It’s a plus if you have:
- Experience advising NGOs, journalists, activists or campaign groups.
- An interest in animal welfare or food systems. You don’t need to be an animal advocate, but you do need to be comfortable with our mission.
