Pro Bono

This commitment to pro bono work has been ingrained in K&L Gates culture since our early years, dating back to the legacy firms that gave root to what we are today.

Our lawyers actively engage in a variety of pro bono efforts and work on hundreds of pro bono matters each year. We litigate civil rights cases, advise nonprofit organizations, help veterans, participate in legal clinics, and represent the indigent in consumer, landlord-tenant, adoption, estate planning, domestic violence, immigration, and other matters. In addition to providing legal assistance directly to individuals who have limited means but substantial legal needs, we provide legal counsel and public policy advocacy to help organizations advance their public service programs, work to advance the rule of law around the world, and accept court appointments to provide pro bono counsel, among other things. The firm highlights a selection of recent pro bono work and awards in For the Good of All.

Firmwide Initiatives

Our firmwide pro bono initiatives allow lawyers across our global platform to work together to address common legal problems.

K&L Gates for Equal Justice

Launched in June 2020, K&L Gates for Equal Justice is a joint initiative of our Diversity and Pro Bono Committees, to harness our firm’s legal skills to promote unity and equal justice. Our efforts focus on voting rights, criminal justice reform, and equal justice for indigenous people.

Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project

For more than a decade, our acclaimed Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project has helped thousands of victims of nonconsensual distribution of intimate images. The project taps lawyers across disciplines and across the United States, Asia, Australia, and Europe, while drawing on our experience with technology-facilitated harassment and cyber forensics.

Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative

Our global Anti-Human Trafficking Initiative works with individuals and non-governmental organizations around the world to help survivors and address the scourge of human trafficking. In partnership with the FBI, we also founded an initiative in Western Pennsylvania focused on helping members of the LGBTQ+ community who are victims of human trafficking.

PROJECTS AND PARTNERS

In Australia, our lawyers collaborate with The National Justice Project (NJP), a nonprofit organization committed to fighting systemic discrimination through strategic litigation, advocacy, partnerships, education, and technology. NJP, along with our firm and other partners, has been involved in the Tech4Justice initiative, which is working to increase access to justice through artificial intelligence that will help individuals with the process for complaints. Our Australian offices also contribute to pro bono service through Justice Connect, a nonprofit that links individuals and community groups with free legal support

Our partnership extends globally as well. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) engaged the firm to assist in developing its Global Child Sexual Exploitation Policy Platform, a groundbreaking online tool designed to address child exploitation worldwide. Over 50 volunteers from our offices in Boston, Chicago, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Melbourne, Newark, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, and Washington, D.C. have collaborated with NCMEC and local counsel on this first-of-its-kind platform.

A cross-office team worked with LexisNexis and our pro bono client World Justice Project to research and prepare a report on disinformation law across 10 ASEAN jurisdictions. The World Justice Project, an independent NGO, focuses on advancing the rule of law globally by creating knowledge, raising awareness, and promoting action.

As part of our ongoing work with Freedom Network USA’s Survivor Reentry Project, we conduct screenings and intake for survivors of human trafficking, helping them clear criminal records tied to their trafficking experiences.

Our successes include precedent-setting cases. A team of lawyers from our Pittsburgh office secured a significant victory in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which not only reversed a summary judgment loss for our client but also set a new standard for qualified immunity analysis under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. A team from Miami also prevailed and set precedent in the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in a case they litigated under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Teams around the globe have done pro bono work for veterans and organizations that support veterans, totaling more than 1,360 hours in the US, Europe, and Australia in 2023.

Our lawyers in Singapore and Doha, in collaboration with others, assisted the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration & Employment of the Government of The Gambia in developing a next-generation investment treaty model called the Sustainable Investment Facilitation and Cooperation Agreement (SIFCA). For the first time in modern investment treaty practice, the development of the SIFCA brings together into one treaty instrument principles of investment protection and of investor obligations under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The SIFCA framework was recently adopted by the Government of The Gambia as a model bilateral investment treaty.

We are also a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, a member of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance, and a member of The Alliance for Asian American Justice.  

AWARDS

Although the goal of our pro bono efforts is to help those in need, we are proud when our lawyers and our initiatives are recognized. Some select awards include the following: 

• For the third year in a row, we received the Advancement in Animal Law Pro Bono Achievement Award from the Animal Legal Defense Fund for dedication to the organization’s mission and the many pro bono hours spent helping to protect the lives of animals and advance their interests through the legal system.
• The Nashville office received the 2023 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Leadership Award, which honors one firm that has provided outstanding volunteer legal service to the Legal Aid Society.
• The firm was honored with the Allegheny County Bar Foundation’s Law Firm Pro Bono Award. The nomination was made by KidsVoice, a long-time pro bono client for which dozens of firm lawyers in Pittsburgh and beyond have dedicated their time over the past twenty years.
• Law Access and the Law Society of Western Australia selected Perth partner Adam Levine  as Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year for his notable pro bono efforts in the region. 
• Desiree Pavey won the Community Action Award, an animal welfare award from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Western Australia. 
• Chicago partner Cliff Histed was selected to receive the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) Distinguished Public Service Award based on his career-long commitment to public service and helping those in need, including his work for the Illinois Torture Injury and Relief Commission.
• Newark associate Reymond Yammine was honored by the New Jersey State Bar Association as the recipient of its 2024 Champion of Justice Award. This award is dedicated to lawyers who show outstanding commitment to providing legal services to the state’s underserved residents.
• The judges of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association honored Chicago partner Nora Becerra and counsel Kenn Brotman with their Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service. The pair was nominated by Magistrate Judge Sunil Harjani for their contributions to the Northern District of Illinois’ settlement assistance program.
• Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ) named Newark partner Nathan Howe as one of their inaugural Defenders of Justice, in recognition of his significant contributions to advancing VLJ’s mission of ensuring access to justice for individuals experiencing poverty and other systemic barriers.
• Our team, led by Dallas managing partner Beth Petronio, was honored with The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network’s 2023 Judicial Advocacy Initiative Award for their work on a significant litigation matter.
• We received the 2023 TrustLaw Impact Award for our work on a pre-trial detention project for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. As part of this project, we collaborated with local counsel or conducted desk-based research addressing the legal policy framework of pre-trial detention in 46 of the then-54 Commonwealth countries has performed more than 2,100 hours of pro bono work during his career.

OTHER COMMUNITY SERVICE

Beyond pro bono legal representation, our lawyers and allied professionals perform public service work in the communities where they live and work. For example, they have served as members of governing bodies of educational institutions, youth sports and arts organizations, environmental groups, civic and cultural organizations, health care and research institutions, and social service and community organizations. Additionally, many of our lawyers and allied professionals provide community service through an array of teaching, mentoring, and other non-legal programs.