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, advance disability rights, plan and 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. We are also working to responsibly deploy technology and artificial intelligence to increase access to justice.

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 Opportunity and Inclusion 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.

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

As an example of a global project, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) engaged the firm to assist in developing its Global Platform for Child Exploitation Policy, a groundbreaking online tool designed to address child exploitation worldwide. More than 100 volunteers from our offices in Austin, Berlin, Boston, Brisbane, Brussels, Charlotte, Chicago, Doha, Dubai, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, New York, Newark, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Perth, Portland, Raleigh, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seattle, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Washington, DC, and Wilmington 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 thousands of hours in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

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: 

• Bloomberg Law selected the firm as a Pro Bono Innovator, which recognizes successful and impactful work across the globe.
• We received the TrustLaw Impact Award for our work on a large pre-trial detention project for the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative. 
• For the fourth 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 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
• The Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation recognized K&L Gates with a Pro Bono Excellence Award based on the collaborative efforts of our firm’s Cyber Civil Rights Legal Project.
• 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. 
• Legal Aid of North Carolina presented Raleigh office managing partner David Lindsay with its Pro Bono Hero Award, recognizing his many years of pro bono service to the organization.
• Singapore counsel and associate director Periowsamy Otharam was recognized with a Pro Bono Ambassador Award, which the Council of the Law Society of Singapore established to honor individuals with a proven record of providing outstanding pro bono service.
• Newark associate Reymond Yammine was honored by the New Jersey State Bar Association as a recipient of its Champion of Justice Award, which is dedicated to lawyers who show outstanding commitment to legal services for the state’s underserved residents.
• Singapore partner and director Joan Lim-Casanova received a Top Volunteer award from Pro Bono SG for her work involving pro bono representation and clinics.
• 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. Subsequently, Newark counsel Gary Sapir was honored with this award for his role in VLJ’s ReLeSe (Reentry Legal Services) program.

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.