Pro Bono & Community Service

Participation in pro bono and community service is one of Baker & McKenzie’s core values. The following are examples of activities in our Europe, Middle East & Central Asia region.

The Arts

We provide pro bono legal services to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our intellectual property lawyers help the museum protect the rights to its names, logos and symbols, and we counsel museum staff on the IP laws of various countries to protect the collections as they travel the world. If collections are damaged, we help the museum collect insurance compensation. We also sponsor the Hermitage School Center’s annual program for children with learning difficulties, called Our Hermitage.

Children

• Lawyers in our Warsaw office advise the United Way on contracts and other matters and contribute monthly to a United Way project that aids single mothers. Warsaw also provides legal assistance to the Hospice for Children.
• Our community service activities in London include raising funds for Richard House Children's Hospice, which provides care and support for life-limited and life-threatened children and their families.

Education

• Our Firm participated in the first sponsorship between the Cambridge Faculty of Law in London and Harvard Law School in Boston. We sponsored a top Cambridge law student who spent one year at Harvard studying for a master of laws degree.

Health and Wellness

• Our pro bono and community service activities in Amsterdam include raising funds for the local Ronald McDonald House, which provides shelter to families of seriously ill children.

Housing and Poverty

• Our Warsaw office provides legal advice to the TVN Foundation “nie jestes sam” (you are not alone), a humanitarian organization devoted to improving educational programs and health and social services.

Immigration and Asylum

• Our Prague office works with the League of Human Rights to help victims of human trafficking resolve their legal status and to draft legislation in areas such as protecting women’s rights against abuse.

Legal Systems, Legal Rights

• While our Firm takes no position on the question of capital punishment, we regularly provide pro bono services on behalf of death row prisoners to ensure they receive a fair hearing. As one example, our London office represents prisoners in the Commonwealth of the Caribbean who have an automatic right to appeal but receive no legal aid.