FT, Legal Week, PILnet and LawWorks Recognize the Greece Collaborative Project with Pro Bono Awards

December.07.2020

Through an innovative pro bono partnership between six international law firms and the NGO European Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL), volunteer lawyers have been able to provide meaningful legal assistance both in person and remotely to asylum seekers residing in camps in the Greek Islands of Lesvos and Samos. This collaboration – over the past 16 months – has helped thousands of vulnerable individuals who confront grave human rights consequences without access to legal assistance.

Earlier this year the Financial Times and Legal Week both awarded the Greece Pro Bono Collaborative Project as the winner of their respective social responsibility innovation awards, and PILnet also awarded the project their 2020 Pro Bono Publico Award. Yesterday it was announced that LawWorks has awarded the project their Best International Pro Bono Award. We are very thankful to these organisations for their support and our project partners Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Charles Russell Speechlys, Dentons, White & Case and ELIL. More information on the awards, and a short video that explains the project, can be found on the ELIL website.

Related Lawyers

Amy Grunske Head of International Pro Bono, Sustainability & Community Responsibility

Londres

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D:+44 20 7862 4672
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Amy Grunske Head of International Pro Bono, Sustainability & Community Responsibility

Londres

Amy works with a variety of international, national and local non-profit organisations and charities to identify their legal needs and to develop and facilitate tailored pro bono legal training, assistance, advice and representation. She also builds strong partnerships and networks with these clients and other partners such as law centres, academic institutions, government institutions and UN agencies to collaboratively develop high impact pro bono projects that use the law, policy and advocacy as tools for social change and development in the areas of human rights, conservation, rule of law and access to justice.

Amy also leads on the further development of the impact finance and social enterprise pro bono practice across the international offices, facilitating legal services to clients seeking to achieve positive social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.

Amy contributes to the continued development of the pro bono sector in the UK, helping to lead on initiatives such as the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono and UKAdemy Pro Bono Training Programme. She also works to involve the firm's commercial clients as trusted partners in select pro bono projects, supporting the development of in-house pro bono.

Amy has many years’ experience advising the private legal sector on the strategic development and management of pro bono programmes across a number of jurisdictions. An Australian qualified lawyer, Amy holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in the areas of law, human rights, international development and psychology.

Rene Kathawala Pro Bono Counsel

New York

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D:+1 212 506 5100
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Rene Kathawala Pro Bono Counsel

New York

Rene works with other pro bono counsel and legal services nonprofits to increase the quantity and quality of pro bono representation that is being provided to indigent clients in each of the cities worldwide where Orrick has a presence. In addition, he supervises and directly works on cases in such diverse areas as immigration law, family and matrimonial law, housing law, public benefits law, employment law counseling, impact litigation and nonprofit advice and counseling. Rene has worked on many substantial matters in the federal and state systems over his career that are reported as precedent. He also works with firm attorneys to strengthen the firm's innovative Impact Finance and Social Enterprise team that he founded and that provides representation in diverse transactional areas to nonprofit, for profit and hybrid organizations dedicated to providing basic services to poor persons around the world in areas including microfinance, water, education, energy, housing and health.

Based on his long-standing commitment to access to justice issues, Rene has been appointed to serve as a member of the New York City Bar Association Right to Counsel Task Force and the New York City Bar Association Family Court Judicial Appointment & Assignment Process Work Group. In recognition of his exemplary work in family law, United States District Judge Bloom appointed Rene as a special master in a federal court family law matter in 2014 in the Eastern District of New York in case number 07-cv-02565-ARR-LB, styled Garmhausen et al v. United States Department of Justice et al.

Related Areas

Pro Bono