How a structured pro bono model is opening new pathways for climate and environmental justice organizations to access the legal support they need.
Strengthening the Legal Community’s Response to the Impact of the Climate Crisis
Climate change and environmental degradation are no longer abstract threats. For communities facing environmental degradation, displacement, and the destruction of ancestral lands, they are daily realities that demand urgent legal responses. Yet for many of the nonprofits and grassroots coalitions working to address these harms, access to high-quality legal support has remained out of reach.
To help close that gap, PILnet brought its proven pro bono pitching roundtable model to the environmental and climate justice sector for European and US organizations. Co-organized with Winston Taylor, the Environmental and Climate Justice Pro Bono Pitching Roundtable took place on June 1, 2026, drawing 61 legal professionals and providing a platform for eight nonprofit organizations from across Europe and the United States to pitch their pro bono projects to the legal community and be connected with free legal support.
The preparatory workshop on April 20th, co-organized by Winston Taylor, aimed to empower environmental and climate justice nonprofits by raising awareness of the diverse pro bono legal resources available globally and showcasing successful case studies to inspire new partnerships. It featured insightful presentations from Margarida Ravara of the Environmental Defender Law Center on programmatic legal support, Jess Thomas of Winston Taylor offering a law firm perspective on environmental pro bono collaborations, and Helen Ahern representing the Blue Marine Foundation on operational and programmatic legal support. A central goal of the session was to equip these organizations with the practical tools and strategic framing necessary to navigate common challenges when working with law firms, ultimately helping them transform their raw legal needs into strong, actionable, and “pitch-ready” proposals for the June Roundtable.
A Proven Model, a New Arena
Building on successful pitching roundtables in Asia (2020 and 2022), the UK and Europe (2024), and the United States (2025), PILnet adapted its established format for a new and urgent domain. Given the changing compliance and legal landscape and the challenging funding environment for NGOs, it is timely to bring this powerful pro bono model to climate justice organizations. For the environment and climate justice-focused edition of the Roundtable, PILnet primarily targeted NGOs from Europe and the U.S.
The eight organizations that pitched represented a remarkable breadth of climate and environmental justice work: from communities fighting industrial animal farming pollution across Europe, to indigenous peoples defending ancestral lands, to organizations developing model climate legislation for state and local governments across the United States.
The projects spanned a wide range of legal disciplines, including EU and national environmental law, business and human rights, corporate climate liability, energy law, children’s rights, international human rights, and administrative law. Participants noted that “hearing pitches from a variety of organizations with different types of legal needs” was among the most valuable aspects of the event, and that the format gave them “a personalized introduction to the projects” in a way that was both focused and accessible.
What Comes Next
Following the roundtable, 4 matters have already been matched so far with 8 law firms, and another matter is currently under process with interest from 4 law firms. Together, these partnerships have the potential to demonstrate what becomes possible when the legal community and civil society align around shared purpose in the face of the climate crisis.