IANGEL presents Pro Bono Services for Human Rights, by IANGEL President Nancy Newman, Advisory Board Member Shruti Rana, and IANGEL Network Attorney Mary Maloney Roberts. The paper is a call-to-action, asking law firms to revisit their definition of pro bono work to ensure the inclusion of human rights as a part of the essential work for the public good.
In 2013, the International Action Network for Gender Equity & Law (IANGEL) was formed to harness the power of pro bono legal services to help secure gender equality and justice locally, nationally, and around the world. While the need for legal resources to address critical human rights issues is overwhelming, needlessly narrow definitions of what qualifies as “pro bono work” substantially impair the legal profession’s efforts to address this need, while also hindering U.S. lawyers from gaining invaluable experience in the global legal marketplace.
In this paper, IANGEL President Nancy Newman, Advisory Board Member Shruti Rana, and IANGEL Network Attorney Mary Maloney Roberts present research on this issue and a solution: to meet the needs of the legal profession and the world, to increase engagement in pro bono work, and to train and inspire the next generation of lawyers to meet the challenges of the global economy, law firm policies should embrace and support pro bono work for human rights.
*UPDATES*
In March 2016, IANGEL hosted a panel discussion at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women NGO Forum about Pro Bono Legal Services for Women’s Empowerment.
In October 2016, a second version of the Pro Bono paper was released. http://www.iangel.org/iangel-celebrates-pro-bono-week-2016/
DOWNLOAD Pro Bono Legal Services for Human Rights (2nd Edition, 2016)