2023 Global Citizenship Review

What's inside

Highlights of our pro bono and volunteering efforts

A message from our Chair

White & Case’s Global Citizenship initiative is a cornerstone of our Firm, and our 2023 pro bono and charitable work was driven by both passion and purpose. This review tells these stories and demonstrates what we can accomplish by focusing our knowledge and resources on the challenges of our time.

In the United States, our Racial Justice Task Force worked to seal decades-old criminal records for pro bono clients, enabling them to pursue better employment, housing and educational opportunities. Relying on a law that addresses sentencing disparities that disproportionately affect Black people, we secured freedom for individuals who had served lengthy sentences imposed when they were under the age of 25 years. Our externship program with Historically Black Colleges and Universities enabled students to work with us on racial justice pro bono matters.

Across conflict-torn regions, our lawyers advocated for asylum-seekers and other forced migrants. As the war in Ukraine continued, we helped eligible refugees obtain UK visas and began researching critical issues that included how Ukraine will finance its eventual reconstruction.

We also secured critical rights for girls. In the US, we helped end child marriage in three states and collaborated on draft legislation to change the federal laws that enable it. In Kenya, we structured a Development Impact Bond that funds sexual and reproductive health care for teenaged girls.

On the environmental front, our lawyers analyzed the constitutions of every country in the world to help ensure access to clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right. Our work also included designing a debt-for-nature swap in Southeast Asia, which will preserve hundreds of square miles of coral reefs.

We retained our focus on educating and empowering the next generation of legal leaders. Key initiatives included training Kenyan lawyers on developments in arbitration law and expanding our support of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for law students in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.

Our efforts had tangible benefits for people around the world, and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished together. Our work continues and evolves, grounded in the belief that the law can be a force for positive transformation on a global scale.


Heather K. McDevitt, Chair

Our inaugural Global Citizenship campaign

The Firm's first Global Citizenship campaign focuses Firmwide efforts to amplify impact

Elevate: investing in the next generation

Our new Global Citizenship campaign concentrates the Firm's volunteering and charitable giving efforts on investing in youth through education, empowerment and employability

A silhouetted view of five children playing outside a hot air balloon decorated in squares of red, yellow, orange, blue and black.
© leelaryonkul / Adobestock

Access to justice

Highlights include the expansion of our Racial Justice Task Force and our efforts on behalf of asylum-seekers and refugees

A force for good

Multipronged effort helps individuals disproportionately affected by our criminal justice system and addresses racial injustice

A group of five multi-generational family members, three male, two female, embrace in a backyard with their backs to the camera.
© Ryan J. Lane / GettyImages

Advancing human rights

Our work focused on protecting women's rights and providing humanitarian assistance and legal aid for Ukraine

Pro bono in wartime

Firm provides humanitarian and legal aid to Ukraine

A female volunteer, right, and Ukrainian refugee woman, left, sit on steps in a train station, both looking at a document the volunteer is holding and explaining.
© Halfpoint Images / GettyImages

An impactful bond

Structuring a Development Impact Bond that enhances reproductive health services for girls in Kenya

A community nurse, left, shares information on a clipboard with three teenage girls, right. The group stands by a wooden fence in front of a shack in an informal settlement in Africa.
© Wilpunt / GettyImages

Ending child marriage in the United States

Momentum continues to build as we helped change laws in three more states, bringing the total to ten states

Two teenage girls facing each other raise their fists against a late-afternoon blue sky. One girl, left, looks up, while the other, right, looks into the distance. The wind blows their hair.
© Hello World / GettyImages

Environmental action

We used our legal skills to safeguard the human right to water and draft an innovative debt-for-nature swap

Swapping debt for nature

The Firm's latest debt-for-nature swap was among the first to tap into a newly reauthorized US law

Image from a camera half-submerged in the tropical waters of Lissenung Island, Papua New Guinea. Under water, dense and varied green coral is visible. Above water, an island and a person paddling a traditional outrigger canoe are silhouetted against a vibrant orange sunset.
© Grant Thomas

Clean water, effective sanitation

Our legal research for Human Right 2 Water helps push essential needs toward becoming legally protected human rights

Two pairs of hands, one left, one right, wash leafy greens in a red bucket, under a stream of water from a water gravity system in a village in northern Sierra Leone. The water is drawn from a local mountain.
© Karen Kasmauski / GettyImages

Educating future leaders

Building legal capacity by training practitioners and future lawyers in developing countries

Training the next generation of international lawyers

The Firm expanded its Vis Moot training to students in Central Asia and Eastern Europe

A nighttime view of the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) in Vienna, Austria. The Neo-Renaissance building is warmly lit, inside and out. Light from traffic appears as red and white streaks in the left foreground.
© MadrugadaVerde / GettyImages

Trailblazing jurist Florence Mumba receives White & Case Distinguished Jessup Alumni Award

The competition opens doors and shapes careers for many law students around the world

A distant view of the Supreme Court of Zambia, in the country's capital of Lusaka. The red-brick, two-story building features white columns along the main facade and a pair of white lion sculptures enclosing the wide entrance steps. A large palm tree stands to the left, and three flagpoles to the right.
© Mtcurado / GettyImages

Dispute alternatives

Training programs help Nairobi's push to become a preferred venue for dispute resolution

Lawyers in traditional black gowns and light-colored wigs walk up a winding concrete ramp as they arrive at the Supreme Court of Kenya, in Nairobi, to be admitted to the Bar in November 2023. Some are also wearing sunglasses.
© Simon Maina / GettyImages

About pro bono

A truly global Pro Bono practice

Our work focuses on providing access to justice, serving organizations with a social or environmental mission and promoting the rule of law and good sovereign governance

Pro bono hours and participation

105,550pro bono hours in 2023


100k+ pro bono hours for the seventh consecutive year

100% of our offices and practices do pro bono work

 


125+ partners and counsel serve as pro bono leaders

800+ pro bono matters in 2023

 

A model partnership

Amazon and White & Case raise the bar on pro bono collaborations with four projects in 2023 

A view of the portico of the New York County Supreme Court, in lower Manhattan in New York City. Above its columns, the portico is engraved with the motto, "The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good government." Sun shines on the top left corner.
© Andrey Denisyuk / GettyImages

Reconciling differences

White & Case teams up with Jawun to support Australia's Indigenous communities

A close-up view of 28 colorfully decorated flags that form the art installation "United Neytions," which hangs in Sydney Airport. Each flag represents one of the original Aboriginal nations and is decorated in varying combinations of stripes, dots, spirals, diamonds and stars, in a color palette of orange, green, black, red, yellow and white. The work is by artist Archie Moore, a member of Australia's Kamilaroi Indigenous nation.
© Moksh Bhatia / Shutterstock

Learn more

For more information about our commitment and activities, please visit our Global Citizenship web pages.

 


Photo by © Sinology / GettyImages
Sunset in a city park in China.

A close-up view of 28 colorfully decorated flags that form the art installation "United Neytions," which hangs in Sydney Airport. Each flag represents one of the original Aboriginal nations and is decorated in varying combinations of stripes, dots, spirals, diamonds and stars, in a color palette of orange, green, black, red, yellow and white. The work is by artist Archie Moore, a member of Australia's Kamilaroi Indigenous nation.

Reconciling differences

White & Case teams up with Jawun to support Australia's Indigenous communities

Story

3 min read

We partner with Australian nonprofit Jawun to place Firm lawyers and business services professionals in Indigenous-led organizations. The collaboration came out of the Firm's Reconciliation Working Group, created in 2019 to explore concrete ways the Firm could support Indigenous Australian communities and aid reconciliation.

Reconciliation focuses on strengthening the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and redressing past injustices. To that end, Jawun brings together business entities, governments and Indigenous Australians to exchange skills and knowledge. This unique partnership model emphasizes working with Indigenous Australians on the ground, thereby equipping them with the tools they need to succeed.

Empowering young leaders

Jawun's secondment program places employees from various industries in Indigenous-led organizations for six weeks across 12 regions in Australia. During August and September 2023, our Melbourne Associate Max Hall was seconded to West Kimberley Futures—Empowered Communities (EC-West) in Yawuru country (Broome, Australia). Led by Indigenous Australian leaders in the West Kimberley, Australia, EC-West works with their members and the community to advocate and influence local, state and federal government decisions impacting Indigenous Australian people in the West Kimberley.

Hall assisted with one of EC-West's priorities: the Empowered Young Leaders (EYL) group, which helps Indigenous Australian youth in the Kimberley. He helped the youth leaders to incorporate the group, host their first general meeting, appoint inaugural directors, select a chair and begin work on EYL initiatives. Hall also worked with local management committees that address issues with their communities such as housing, employment and creating safe spaces for young people as well as developing governance structures to improve community engagement and outcomes.

An opportunity for growth and connection

Hall's secondment was capped off by attending the Kimberley Land Council and EYL Annual General Meeting held at Home Valley Station in Western Australia. During this week he gained invaluable insights into the Kimberley's unique cultures, challenges and aspirations. Several powerful speeches left a lasting impression, including one by Quentin Turner, EC-West's EYL coordinator. Turner's speech to EYL members addressed topics such as the significant youth suicide rate among Indigenous Australians, the importance of leading and implementing positive change and the need for Indigenous Australian youth to have a voice in decisions that affect them.

Hall left his secondment with a deeper understanding of Indigenous Australian cultures and a reinforced appreciation of the importance of listening without inserting personal beliefs or biases. His improved awareness of Indigenous Australian priorities and interests is relevant to the infrastructure and construction matters he works on at the Firm.

Since partnering with Jawun, three White & Case lawyers and business services professionals, including Hall, have helped advance reconciliation by sharing their skills and knowledge with, and learning from, Indigenous-led organizations.


Highlight

Helping Ukrainian refugees reach safety in the UK
As part of a multi-firm pro bono project in collaboration with refugee charity Safe Passage International, we are supporting Ukrainian refugees by seconding UK-qualified, London-based associates to two-week legal clinics in Warsaw. Our lawyers help check their clients' eligibility for the Homes for Ukraine Scheme and the Ukraine Family Scheme and, if eligible, assist them with applying. Safe Passage estimates that the collaboration has helped more than 340 people fleeing Ukraine and obtained UK visas for 80 of them. Four Firm associates have taken part since we joined the initiative in summer 2022.


Photo by © Moksh Bhatia / Shutterstock
"United Neytions," an installation by artist Archie Moore, a member of Australia's Kamilaroi Indigenous nation. The work, which consists of 28 flags representing the original Aboriginal nations, hangs in Sydney Airport.


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