As Public Service Counsel, Director of Global Pro Bono for Latham & Watkins, Wendy Atrokhov oversees one of the largest pro bono programs in the world. Since 2000, Latham has provided more than 3.7 million hours in pro bono legal services to underserved individuals and families and the nonprofit sector. More than 90% of Latham lawyers worldwide undertake pro bono work in nearly every area of public interest law. In addition, Latham organizes legal clinics and advises charities, nonprofit organizations, and social enterprises working to address critical social problems.

In addition to serving on the PILnet Pro Bono Leadership Council, Ms. Atrokhov serves on the Lawyers’ Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the TrustLaw Pro Bono Council, and is a member of the Washington Council of Lawyers. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of LathamCares, which offers grants and assistance to those in the Latham community who have been affected by personal hardship or crisis. Prior to serving in her current role, Ms. Atrokhov practiced corporate finance law in Latham’s Moscow office from 2002 – 2010. She began her career as an associate in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office in 1999.

For more than 15 years, clients have benefited from the extensive experience of Serge Clerckz, Partner at Jones Day, in EU competition law and government regulation in a wide range of sectors, including aerospace, consumer goods, technology, and ITC.

His competition practice covers merger control and antitrust. Serge has led several recent merger cases for P&G, including its $4.2 billion acquisition of Merck KGaA’s consumer health business, the dissolution of its JV with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and the $12.5 billion sale of its beauty business (including Hugo Boss, Gucci, Max Factor, Wella) to Coty. He also led Goodrich’s $18.4 billion merger with UTC and TI’s acquisition of National Semiconductors. His antitrust practice includes complex investigations and private enforcement litigation, including a landmark €120 million settlement for KPN following an abuse of dominance claim against Belgacom.

Serge also has extensive experience in regulated industries including the representation of the GSM Association before the European Court of Justice on the legal basis of the regulation of international roaming prices. Other representative clients include Bombardier, Bunge, The Carlyle Group, Ferro, Knauf Insulation, KPN Group, Materion, Micron, Owens Corning, Solvay, Socar Trading, UPM, and The World Bank. Serge regularly speaks at conferences and publishes on competition law and government regulation. He is a guest lecturer at Sciences Po, Paris and the Free University of Brussels (VUB).

Brenna DeVaney directs Skadden’s global pro bono practice and is responsible for the firm’s relationships with legal services organizations and nonprofits. Her own practice focuses on representing low-income individuals, including women in family law matters who have been the victims of domestic violence. She enjoys helping in-house legal departments and companies with developing their pro bono and professional skills based volunteering programs. Brenna serves with Kiisha Morrow as founding Co-President of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance. She also works as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School and Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She is a frequent lecturer and presenter at both national and international convenings focused on access to justice. Brenna lives in Chicagoland with her husband, David, and their four children.

Özgür is the Director of Pro Bono for Europe for DLA Piper managing key relationships with prominent European NGOs and UN Agencies. She also leads the firm’s “Access to Justice and Technology” work stream developing innovative technology projects for NGOs and vulnerable individuals. She is a scholar of corporate social responsibility with a focus on ESG.

Rene Kathawala serves as Orrick’s firmwide pro bono counsel, responsible for managing and initiating the firm’s pro bono activities, including all administrative and legal aspects.

Rene works with other pro bono counsel and legal services nonprofits to increase the quantity and quality of pro bono representation that is being provided to indigent clients in each of the cities worldwide where Orrick has a presence. In addition, he supervises and directly works on cases in such diverse areas as immigration law, family and matrimonial law, housing law, public benefits law, employment law counseling, impact litigation and nonprofit advice and counseling. Rene has worked on many substantial matters in the federal and state systems over his career that are reported as precedent. He also works with firm attorneys to strengthen the firm’s innovative Impact Finance team that he founded.

As Global Head of Pro Bono for Herbert Smith Freehills, Brooke leads the direction of pro bono services across a global network of 26 offices. Her practice focuses on leveraging her experience in social impact to advocate for systemic change, bringing together cross-sector stakeholders to achieve tangible outcomes for disadvantaged communities.

Brooke has 17 years of experience in working with a diverse range of pro bono clients and is regularly sought out by non-profit, charities, social enterprises and corporate Boards and Executives for strategic and legal advice. She is renowned for going above and beyond to maximise social impact through deploying skills and influence at a systemic level. Brooke has particular expertise in access to justice and working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients. 

Brooke holds a Bachelor of Law with European Law from the University of Nottingham, England and the Universistät Göttingen, Germany. She was the inaugural recipient of Herbert Smith Freehills’s Kathryn Everett Leadership Fellowship for Women Lawyers and undertook the Harvard Business School course in Authentic Leadership Development in 2016. She is also a member of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel and the BCA Business Indigenous Network.

Louis O’Neill is Counsel and Pro Bono Director at White & Case.  He directs the Firm’s Global Pro Bono Practice and advises the Firm’s pro bono and commercial clients on a broad range of matters, notably in the area of appeals.  Before returning to White & Case, O’Neill served in non-political capacities as Ambassador and Head of Mission to Moldova for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), as a Member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and as White House Fellow to US Secretary of State Colin Powell.  Prior to the White House Fellowship, O’Neill served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Special Prosecutions Bureau of the New York County District Attorney’s Office.  He began his legal career at White & Case as an associate.  He speaks English, Russian, Romanian and Persian.

Helen leads the pro bono practice at Allen & Overy. She manages the firm’s wide range of pro bono matters and develops its partnerships with charities, social enterprises, NGOs and the clients they serve. The focus of the pro bono practice is on access to justice, human rights, social finance and impact investment and international development. Since 2012, Helen has delivered an award-winning programme that provides free legal advice and representation to hundreds of individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford it.

At Allen & Overy, Helen is an executive committee member of the firm’s global Human Rights Group and its Social Finance and Impact Investment Group. Helen is also a member of the Allen & Overy Foundation London and Global Grants Committees, acting in an advisory capacity on access to justice matters.

As Pro Bono partner, Ben Weinberg works with Dentons’ Global and US Pro Bono Committees, with the firm’s Pro Bono team, and with firm-wide and regional leadership to manage the Firm’s substantial pro bono program.

In addition, Ben helps develop new pro bono initiatives with legal aid providers, nonprofits and NGOs. He encourages and facilitates pro bono participation across Dentons and helps firm lawyers establish pro bono practices that complement and expand their billable practices. Ben also helps develop and support pro bono and community service partnerships with Dentons’ clients. Prior to joining Dentons in 2008, Ben served as Chief of the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Interest Division.  Before that, Ben was an equity partner and associate at Jenner and Block in Chicago, where he tried five cases to verdict for firm clients, and maintained an active pro bono practice, including representation of a death row inmate who received clemency in 2003. Ben began his legal practice as a staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago (Englewood office), where he represented indigent clients and specialized in domestic violence matters and juvenile court abuse and neglect cases. Ben also served as a law clerk to the Honorable William J. Bauer of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Ben was President of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo) in 2016.  He frequently presents at leading pro bono conferences, including the PILnet Global Pro Bono Forum, ABA/National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s Equal Justice Conference, and the Pro Bono Institute’s Annual Conference. He also serves as adjunct faculty at Northwestern University School of law, where he co-teaches a  seminar on pro bono in large law firms.

Suzanne E. Turner is a partner and the chair of Dechert’s firm-wide Pro Bono practice, which provides legal representation to individuals and organizations that otherwise could not afford it. Her practice involves a wide range of human rights and civil rights litigation. Throughout her career, Ms. Turner has been active in many organizations focused on access to justice and civil rights issues. Currently, Ms. Turner is a board member of PILnet and of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. From 2005-2009, she served as a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. She is the former chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Public Interest Section, founded and co-chaired the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Law Firm Pro Bono Committee and served as vice-chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities Equal Access to Civil Justice Committee.