Since people are discussing the legal situation: one practical thing the EA community could potentially do is make it clear that if a bankruptcy trustee came after smaller grantees, the community would arrange for the grantee’s legal representation. Maybe this offer would be limited to grantees who offered to return grant funds that were not spent or irrevocably committed as of this week (or some later date when the community feels that grantees should know to stop commiting grant funds). Litigation is expensive, which means (1) smaller grantees could be at risk of being bullied into giving back monies they should not have to, but also (2) a credible commitment by the community to fund legal defense would make it unprofitable to litigate against certain smaller grantees (meaning the community shouldn’t even have to spend money on their representation at all).
(I cannot represent anyone due to the nature of my employment, by the way.)
Since people are discussing the legal situation: one practical thing the EA community could potentially do is make it clear that if a bankruptcy trustee came after smaller grantees, the community would arrange for the grantee’s legal representation. Maybe this offer would be limited to grantees who offered to return grant funds that were not spent or irrevocably committed as of this week (or some later date when the community feels that grantees should know to stop commiting grant funds). Litigation is expensive, which means (1) smaller grantees could be at risk of being bullied into giving back monies they should not have to, but also (2) a credible commitment by the community to fund legal defense would make it unprofitable to litigate against certain smaller grantees (meaning the community shouldn’t even have to spend money on their representation at all).
(I cannot represent anyone due to the nature of my employment, by the way.)