In June 2020, Mayer Brown launched Project Equity in recognition of the important role that law firms and lawyers have to play in addressing systemic racism and promoting racial equity in the law. The project is designed to broaden the firm’s strategic engagement on issues of racial and social justice and to help bring about meaningful change. Our firm has pledged to devote 50,000 hours to Project Equity initiatives over three years. To that end, and in collaboration with our nonprofit partners, we have developed pro bono and community service opportunities focused on five issue areas: (1) voter rights, (2) criminal justice and policing reform, (3) housing and economic stability, (4) education and (5) minority-owned small business assistance. Our firm also committed significant financial contributions in support of organizations working to advance racial justice and that support communities of color in the United States. Our pro bono work has received many accolades, including most recently from the City Bar Justice Center, which honored Mayer Brown for its commitment to promoting racial, social and economic justice through pro bono legal services and other philanthropic endeavors.
To learn more about our work with the City Bar Justice Center, please watch this video.
Our Structure
Mayer Brown strongly encourages every lawyer to participate in the pro bono program and provides credit for the hours they donate. In the United States, we are a signatory to the “Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge,” which commits us to devote 3 percent of total billable time to pro bono work. We are also a signatory to the “UK Joint Protocol on Pro Bono Work,” which stipulates that pro bono legal work must be carried out to the same standard as chargeable work.
Our program is managed by the Global Director of Pro Bono and a dedicated team of four fulltime attorneys. It is overseen by the firm’s Global Pro Bono Committee, which is made up of lawyers from every office and almost every practice. In addition, there are local and regional pro bono committees to ensure a robust and diverse pro bono program.
Our Pro Bono Work
The guiding purpose of our program is to use the resources of one of the world’s largest law firms to attack systemic problems. We have formalized projects that allow us to maximize impact while still encouraging our lawyers to find individual cases and issues of importance to them.
Through our pro bono program, we not only help individuals to rebuild and restore their lives, we help to foster the industries and organizations that address the underlying issues and challenges. Some of the areas we cover are:
- Adoptions
- Advice Clinics
- Affordable Housing
- Anti-Poverty and Economic Development Initiatives
- Appellate and US Supreme Court Litigation
- Arts & Culture
- Asylum, Immigration and Refugee Law
- Civil Liberties& Civil Rights
- Death Penalty
- Environment
- Eviction Defense
- Indigent Criminal Defense
- Intellectual Property
- International Human Rights and Rule of Law
- LGBTQ+ Rights
- Mediation and Settlement Assistance
- Microentreprenuers and Small Businesses
- Microfinance/Social Finance
- Not-for-Profit and Charitable Organizations
- Prisoner’s Rights
- Public Benefits
- Veteran’s Benefits
In addition to donating time, the firm regularly makes financial contributions to public and legal services organizations, and was among the first large law firms to integrate charitable giving and the pro bono program.
Our Community Service Work
Our lawyers and staff participate in community service activities around the world, often partnering with both public interest and private corporate clients in a variety of activities.
One of the crucial ways we fulfill our social responsibility is through supporting education-related programs and organizations. These include reading, mentoring, and clean-up initiatives in schools in and around London, New York, Washington DC, Chicago and Los Angeles.
In addition to serving on boards of directors of public service and civic organizations, our lawyers and staff in the United States, Europe and Asia also participate in programs to build homes, assist food banks, visit elderly centers, raise funds, and arrange donations of food, furniture and other items for community organizations.
