LEX MUNDI PRO BONO FOUNDATION EXPANDS GLOBAL REACH
Current Projects Include Collaboration with the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor
(HOUSTON, June 4, 2007) – Eighteen months after its operations began, the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation has already enlisted 53 Lex Mundi law firms to provide pro bono legal services to 99 social entrepreneurs on more than 160 separate projects. These legal projects span the globe from Indonesia to the Netherlands and from Paraguay to Iowa.
The Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, an affiliate of Lex Mundi, calls upon Lex Mundi’s unique global network of 160 top-tier commercial law firms to provide legal assistance to social entrepreneurs on a pro bono basis. Social entrepreneurs are change makers—individuals and organizations that use entrepreneurial approaches and innovative ideas to improve the lives of the poor and disenfranchised. By providing social entrepreneurs with critically needed legal assistance, the Foundation supports the rapidly expanding global social entrepreneurship movement for positive social change.
Lex Mundi firms throughout the world have been extremely cooperative and generous in taking on virtually every pro bono project presented to them by the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation. In recent days, Lex Mundi firms in India, Botswana, Thailand, Vietnam and Germany have accepted pro bono assignments on behalf of a diverse array of social entrepreneurs.
In addition, the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation has been working closely with the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, chaired by Madeleine Albright and Hernando de Soto. At the behest of the Foundation, Lex Mundi firms in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Pakistan, South Africa, Botswana, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru and Bolivia are providing research and other assistance to working groups of the Commission.
Social entrepreneurs and their supporting organizations have been extremely complimentary. Commented one social entrepreneur, “This is an amazing network! An email that I sent at about noon today resulted in a likely candidate [a lawyer] to help us with a very pressing legal question.”
An award winning and very prominent social entrepreneur, who received advice and assistance from Lex Mundi’s member firm in Colombia, exclaimed, “This firm has been fabulous.” The Colombia law firm had provided sophisticated advice on the registration process and expedited the approval process.
A representative of an organization that provides medical assistance to the rural poor in Gambia remarked, “Without [the Foundation], we would never have been able to get off the ground…We would NEVER have been able to get anywhere with the IRS had it not been for you—and Jim [the Lex Mundi lawyer]. I am certain of this.”
The Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, headquartered in Washington DC. To learn more about the Foundation, its mission and its current projects, please visit: www.lexmundiprobono.org.
Lex Mundi is the world’s leading association of independent law firms. The association has more than 160 member firms around the world, representing approximately 20,000 lawyers. The organization provides for the exchange of professional information about the global practice and development of law, facilitates and disseminates communications among its members, and improves the members’ abilities to serve the needs of their respective clients. Member law firms are located throughout North America, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. For more information on Lex Mundi please visit: www.lexmundi.com.
For a printable version of this press release, please click here: http://www.lexmundi.com/images/lexmundi/PDF/PressReleases/ProBono_June2007.pdf |
