2023 CPBO Pro Bono Partner Awardee

The Justice in Action project, a collaboration of more than 60 legal departments and Baker McKenzie, is a triumph of building community across industries, geographies, and cultures through pro bono. Justice in Action addresses compelling social justice challenges around the globe through impactful research projects on behalf of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that serve vulnerable populations. The program has revolutionized how pro bono is executed through an original, collaborative virtual “sprint” format, that allows teams of volunteers from Baker McKenzie and legal departments to effectively conduct the legal research and analysis needed to create a number of capacity-building tools that have assisted vulnerable populations and others who need to understand the law.

Since May 2021, 3,391 participants have joined this initiative. Around 90% of participants are lawyers, 10% are legal staff, 2,430 are from in-house legal departments, and 961 are Baker McKenzie employees.

This partnership has engaged teams of problem-solvers on some of the world’s most compelling social justice challenges relating to racism, mental health, justice crossing borders, and child welfare. Pro bono volunteer attorneys and legal professionals have participated in many impactful projects, including:

• Real Rights Legal Guide for Youth Interacting with Police: Justice in Action is creating a first-of-its-kind, city-specific guide for youth who come into contact with the police, containing information about state, federal, and municipal laws and how young people can assert their rights. This project, partnering with the Global Initiative on Justice With Children (www.justicewithchildren.org), is focused on global cities where Black, brown, and other minority children, youth and adults engage with the police more often and with dangerous results.
• Kids in Mental Health Detention: Children and youth across the globe are increasingly facing detention for issues surrounding mental health. Unfortunately, in many jurisdictions that detention is unregulated and mirrors criminal detention, often times with less legal parameters around legal rights in entering detention, during, and, ultimately, leaving detention. Given that youth of color are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system, it is thought (though data is not collected to confirm) that youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth are equally overrepresented in the mental health detention settings. Partnering with the American Bar Association Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the Section of Litigation, this project focuses on the gathering and analysis of laws and regulations around when children and youth can be detained solely for issues related to mental health. This work will be published by partner organizations across the globe and shared with organizations working directly with youth in mental health detention.
• Evaluating Domestic Violence laws: Justice in Action prepared a global comparative law tool designed to assess the relative effectiveness of applicable laws on fighting domestic violence, and to identify where improvements can be made locally, nationally, and internationally. At the request of domestic violence leaders from Global Rights for Women and Every Woman Treaty, the project is focused on fighting domestic violence and intimate partner violence across 73 countries. Over 500 volunteers from participating corporations and Baker McKenzie dedicated themselves to identifying the gap between human rights standards set out in legal frameworks and existing laws by jurisdiction.
• LGBTQ+ Youth Advocacy: Mapping U.S. Laws to Help Youth Experiencing Homelessness: Justice in Action is working with Lambda Legal’s Youth In Out-of-Home Care team to develop a legal map detailing questions that LGBTQ+ youth express every day on topics such as medical consent, ability to contract, emancipation, public accommodations, anti-discrimination laws, and more. This project is focused on compiling research to ultimately publish on Lambda Legal’s website as an accessible and reliable tool for young people and providers who work with LGBTQ+ youth.
• Myth Busting: “Conversion Therapy” Torture of LGBTQ+ Youth: Justice in Action is examining the so-called “Conversion Therapy” laws and practices in select countries to assist youth seeking resolution of a visa or asylum application in the U.S. This project is focused on country conditions that include these false “psychological” treatments and how they are used to hurt children based on a theory that they can falsely stop them from being LGBTQ+.