This is a guest piece by Marieanne McKeown, Senior Legal Officer with PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law. Marieanne's guest contribution looks at how PILnet has developed a global network for Public Interest Law.
At first glance human rights NGOs and corporate lawyers don’t have much in common. Take a closer look, though, and you can see a growing partnership emerging between the two.
PILnet has helped to lay the foundations for such partnerships, first across Europe and now globally, by helping local and international NGOs identify their legal needs and then by matching those needs with corporate pro bono lawyers. It’s a simple solution for NGOs that lack the budget to pay for legal advice or research, as well as for lawyers who want to use their legal skills to help a good cause but might not know where to find opportunities.
Take, for example, the London-based Child Rights International Network (CRIN), which is coordinating a global campaign to end the death penalty for and inhuman criminal sentencing of children. Through PILnet’s Global Pro Bono Clearinghouse, CRIN has partnered with three international corporate law firms to research laws and statistics on these practices in far-flung states that are some of the least transparent in the world. By utilising their global networks and putting their skills at the disposal of CRIN, these law firms are boosting the firepower of CRIN’s campaign.
Pro bono support also often comes in the more traditional but ultimately crucial form of legal support for the administration and governance of NGOs. Advice on employment contracts, charity registration, and taxes helps secure the nuts and bolts of a successful and sustainable organisation.
In the Republic of Ireland, the Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA) has pioneered pro bono support of this kind. PILA has built on a strong but unstructured culture of pro bono in Ireland to establish a network of 150 lawyers and 13 law firms that provide regular pro bono support to the NGO community. Today, in some of the most challenging economic conditions ever faced by Irish NGOs, it is time to utilise both the local and international pro bono support that is on-hand. Perfectly complementing the local support that PILA’s pro bono program offers, PILnet can offer Irish NGOs a global reservoir of lawyers whose time, expertise, and networks are at the ready.
The synergy between these two approaches is clearest during PILnet’s annual European Pro Bono Forum. Now in its 7th year, the Forum is Europe’s largest gathering of lawyers, NGOs, clearinghouses, law schools, and others interested in the potential of pro bono. This year’s Forum, which will take place in Warsaw, Poland, 24–25 October 2013, will turn its focus to the rights of women, children, and the LGBT community; to helping NGOs define their legal needs and connect with the lawyers that can fulfill them; and to challenging the barriers to the growth of pro bono locally and internationally. It is an unmatched opportunity to tap into the resources of the European and international pro bono community. To put a slight twist on a well-worn phrase: to act locally, sometimes you need to think globally.
To discuss the legal needs of your NGO and connect with international lawyers, contact Marieanne McKeown—mmckeown@pilnet.org.
Click here to find out more or register for the 2013 European Pro Bono Forum.