News & Events

Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation e-letter (January, 2007)

Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation: First Year a Resounding Success

Thanks to the cooperation and generosity of our Lex Mundi member firms and lawyers, the accomplishments of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation during its first year of operation vastly exceeded our expectations. Since January 2006, the Foundation has found lawyers in 42 member firms who have provided  pro bono legal services to social changemakers on 97 separate projects. This work has enabled these changemakers—called “social entrepreneurs”—to improve the lives of the poor and disenfranchised and to literally change the world.

One of these changemakers, a doctor who heads a US-based organization that provides medical assistance to the poor in The Gambia, sent us an email on December 27 in which she praised Jim Lyon, a lawyer with Murtha Cullina LLP, the Connecticut (USA) Lex Mundi member firm. Referring to Jim's legal work, she wrote:

'' We never felt like we were anything but important, paying clients to him. He thinks about what our needs are, anticipates issues we have not even thought about, and fills us with confidence that our issues will be resolved very shortly. We also feel confident that he will help us with other legal issues that may arise for our company in the future which is a tremendous relief."

Over the past year the Foundation has established and strengthened collaborative relationships with prominent organizations that identify and support social entrepreneurs. These organizations include: Acumen, Ashoka, Avina, Draper Richards, Echoing Green, European Venture Philanthropy Association, Global Fund for Children, Grameen Foundation, Mercy Corps/Phoenix Fund, NYU Stern School of Business, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Venture Philanthropy Partners and World Bank Development Marketplace. These organizations spread the word about our pro bono initiative and send us social entrepreneurs who are in need of legal assistance.

In December, the Foundation established a working relationship with the prestigious UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto, the first global initiative to focus specifically on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law.   Thus far, Lex Mundi firms in Bolivia, Peru, Botswana, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have agreed to provide country-specific research assistance to the Commission’s working groups. Based in part on the work product of Lex Mundi, the Commission will produce final reports in 2008 that will guide and inform policymaking and lead to important reforms.

We are extremely pleased to announce that Ben Greer, distinguished past Chair of Lex Mundi (2003-2004) and retired Alston & Bird LLP (Georgia) partner, has joined the Foundation staff as Vice President. Ben is devoting a substantial part of his time to matching Lex Mundi member firm lawyers with social entrepreneurs and strengthening the Foundation’s collaborative relationships.

At the end of the Foundation’s first year, we wish to thank once more those member firms that generously contributed to the Foundation (see our website at http://www.lexmundiprobono.org/ and click on Benefactors for names of the firms).  Their support, together with the grants the Foundation received from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Shell Foundation, has played a critically important role in the successful launch of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation.

Laura Stein Joins Board of Advisors

Laura Stein, Senior VP-General Counsel & Corporate Secretary of The Clorox Company, has joined the Board of Advisors of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation. Laura is Treasurer and serves on the Executive Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel and she chairs the ABA Asia Law Initiative Council. In addition to Ms. Stein, the Foundation’s Board of Advisors includes Brizio Biondi-Morra, President of Avina and Chairman of INCAE, Pamela Hartigan, Managing Director of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Kurt Hoffman, Director of the Shell Foundation, and Melissa Johns of the World Bank.

Inspiring Speakers

To help Lex Mundi lawyers understand the social entrepreneurship movement and to inspire them to provide pro bono legal services, the Foundation arranged to bring in several passionate, charismatic and highly successful social entrepreneurs to speak at Lex Mundi conferences this year, including:

At Lex Mundi’s Latin America/Caribbean Regional conference in February, our speaker will be Sylvia Reyes, who heads an organization that breaks the cycle of poverty for the thousands of children who work long hours unsupervised on the streets in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Pro Bono Committee Launched

More than 40 lawyers attended the first meeting of Lex Mundi’s new Pro Bono Committee during the Annual Conference in Chicago on September 16. The mission of the new Committee is to encourage and enhance the delivery of pro bono legal services by Lex Mundi firms by providing guidance, advice and resources to firms in developing pro bono policies and programs, and to provide a liaison between member firms and the separately organized and operated Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation.

The Chair of the new Pro Bono Committee is Paul Schabas of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, Ontario, Canada.  Any lawyer in a Lex Mundi firm who is interested in pro bono legal services is invited and encouraged to join the Pro Bono Committee by emailing or calling Paul at paul.schabas@blakes.com, 1.416.863.2400.  The Regional Vice Chairs of the Committee are:

On behalf of Lex Mundi and the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation we wish you a happy, successful and peaceful New Year.

Carl Anduri, President of Lex Mundi and the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation

Dave Roll, Managing Director of the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation and  liaison to the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Committee