Koalaa produces innovative, lightweight, soft prostheses for less than the cost of a smartphone, and, through its #ProjectLimitless initiative, is on a mission to give every child who needs one a prosthetic arm.

Things were going well for Koalaa until it, Nate, and others were required to face complex, aggressive litigation brought by Nate’s former business partner.

The action posed significant, possibly existential, legal and financial risks not only to Nate but also Koalaa. Losing at trial could have meant the end of Koalaa and its work for people with limb differences.

And while the former business partner had a full legal team of solicitors and barristers, Nate was unable to afford legal representation.

To balance the scales, Pro-Bono Connect connected Nate with Mayer Brown and a barrister—a legal team that conducted extensive disclosure (discovery), prepared witness evidence, and successfully defended Nate at trial. The litigation brought by Nate's former business partner was dismissed in its entirety. His subsequent attempts to seek a retrial on the basis that the judge should be recused were also dismissed.

We also persuaded the High Court to make a pro bono costs order: an order that Nate's former business partner must pay to the Access to Justice Foundation a sum representing a portion of Nate’s notational legal costs. This turned out to be the highest-value pro bono costs order known in the UK, £345,000.

The Foundation funds legal advice for those who cannot afford it yet who do not qualify for or benefit adequately from UK government legal aid, whose funding has been cut over the years.

Free from the threat and disruption of litigation, Koalaa has expanded #ProjectLimitless beyond the UK, now working with partners in Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and other areas of the world where war has led to limb loss and poverty impedes access to prosthetics.