Pro Bono

Our approach to pro bono

This programme harnesses the legal and business skills and, importantly, enthusiasm of our people for the benefit of our pro bono clients. Our clients are leaders in promoting human rights and the rule of law, securing access to justice, supporting disadvantaged children, and supporting Millennium Development Goals through alleviating poverty and fighting HIV and other diseases.

A strong pro bono programme creates the potential to effect change. We do this work because we have the skills and we want to help. It gives us empathy and understanding, it makes us think on our feet and find creative solutions to common problems, and it allows us to help those who have nowhere else to turn.

We owe the same professional duty to pro bono clients as we do to the fee-paying ones and so we treat pro bono time the same as fee-earning time for work allocation, appraisals and bonuses. Indeed, pro bono is now a 'sector group' at Freshfields and each office has a partner responsible for pro bono.

In this section you can read about some of our key pro bono matters around the world.

Oxfam

There are strong synergies between our pro bono programme and Oxfam: we both have global reach and an innovative approach to problem solving. It is why our relationship works and is growing.

As well as our main relationship with Oxfam UK, we have built local relationships with Oxfam offices across our network. From microfinance in Moscow to competition law in Brussels, from constitutional advice in Amsterdam to employment advice in Paris and a trainee secondment from London, we are helping Oxfam help others more efficiently.

The charity has recently begun its Global Integration Project, which involves reorganising the way in which 14 different Oxfams work in over 85 countries. Freshfields is integral to this complex process, creating efficient legal structures and guiding the charity around potential pitfalls.

Access to justice: representing individuals

Around the world our lawyers provide free representation to some of the people who need it the most.

In New York we work with Human Rights First representing individuals in asylum cases. We work with the Asylum Support Appeals Project in London, representing asylum seekers and former asylum seekers trying to enforce their limited rights to food and shelter.

In China our team helps the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre, supporting individuals with free legal advice. Elsewhere we take part in pro bono representation projects in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

Providing representation to those who cannot afford it is an important part of our commitment to promoting access to justice. We will continue to offer our time and expertise in this area to make a difference to those in need.

Global Hand and the UN

Global Hand is a Hong Kong-based matching service that brokers relationships between the commercial world and non-profit organisations. It provides an innovative service to both sides, allowing those in need to be connected to offers of help that might not otherwise have found them.

Our work for Global Hand has been to advise on its important tie-in with the United Nations – a complex operational and legal process. Interested parties can now access the organisation's 'smart routing' technology from the new UN website at business.un.org. This groundbreaking facility was immediately put to the test, as the Haiti earthquake hit just after its launch. The site received thousands of visits and offers of aid were efficiently and speedily processed.

With reliance on the generosity of the private sector likely to increase as governments' budgets are squeezed by the recession, Global Hand has created a sensible and modern tool to help the lives of others.

(RED) and the Global Fund

Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases is one of the Millennium Development Goals where a law firm's pro bono programme can make a tangible difference. We are pro bono legal adviser to both (RED), the initiative set up by Bono and Bobby Shriver to help fund the fight against AIDS in Africa, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the recipient of (RED)'s fundraising efforts.

We recently advised (RED) on FLOWE(RED), its new online flower service, covering all aspects of the agreement with its joint venture partner. All of the flowers are ethically sourced and 100 per cent of profits go to helping those living with HIV in Africa.

Freshfields is advising the Global Fund on its Affordable Medicines Facility - malaria. We have helped draft and negotiate master supply agreements between the Global Fund and several leading pharmaceutical suppliers of artemisinin-based combination therapies, the most effective malaria treatment.