Details of legal-advice services for members of Finland’s artist associations can be found on the Web page ‘How to live on visual arts’. The legal counsel of the Artists’ Association of Finland provides counselling on legal issues related to artists’ work for all artists who belong to one of the member associations.

This service is available to all those visual artists who belong to one of the associations that are part of the Artists’ Association of Finland umbrella organisation (the Finnish Painters’ Union, the Association of Finnish Sculptors, the Photographic Artists’ Association, the Association of Finnish Printmakers, and Artists’ Association MUU).

You can request legal advice aimed at members when, for example, negotiating on commissioning and exhibition contracts, or in connection with issues of copyrights, taxation, and social security. The legal expert will provide advice and assistance for member artists in, for example, drafting contracts and handling the processes related to taxation and social security.

In principle, the legal counselling service is not intended for assisting an individual artist with court proceedings. However, in exceptional cases, the association’s legal counsel can bring a case to be tried before a court of justice, if the judicial decision is considered to have more general meaning for the association or its member artists.

The association’s legal counsel is Aura Lehtonen. She can be reached by phone at +358 50 434 4280 and via e-mail at aura.lehtonen (at) artists.fi.  Telephone hours are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 am to 12 pm.