2025 Global Forum

Join PILnet’s annual gathering of pro bono clearinghouses and civil society organizations, where we will discuss opportunities and challenges unique to working with pro bono and public interest lawyers to create more just, equitable, and sustainable societies. We will share learnings from a year managing the pandemic and discuss the future of pro bono brokerage, cooperation between civil society and private sector, and how we can create greater impact in the field.

Asia-Pacific/Europe/Africa: 6p AET | 3p HKT | 9a CET | 9a SAST | 8a BST
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Europe/Africa/Americas: 3p CET | 3p SAST | 2p BST | 9a ET | 6a PT
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Meeting attendees are welcome to join either session.

Presented in partnership with the Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo), this meeting is for law firm pro bono professionals. In this year’s session, participants will discuss developments in law firm ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) practice areas and if and how they intersect and overlap with pro bono and corporate social responsibility efforts.

Asia-Pacific/Europe/Africa: 6p AET | 3p HKT | 9a CET | 9a SAST | 8a
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Europe/Africa/Americas: 4:30p CET | 4:30p SAST | 3:30p BST | 10:30a ET | 7:30a PT
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Meeting attendees are welcome to join either session.

This interactive meeting will provide an opportunity for corporate in-house counsel and other in-house professionals to share in a productive conversation with counterparts from around the world. Participants will learn more about global associations of in-house counsel and hear updates from the in-house community. Participants then have an option of two interactive breakout sessions: Pro Bono 101, for those starting a pro bono program, and Global Pro Bono, for those looking to expand their current pro bono program.

Asia-Pacific: 6p AET | 3p HKT | 9a CET | 9a SAST | 8a BST
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Europe, Africa, Americas: 4:30p CET | 4:30p SAST | 3:30p BST | 10:30a ET | 7:30a PT
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Meeting participants are encouraged to attend the session for their region.

In this meeting, PILnet invites law firm, corporate, clearinghouse, and civil society partners to meet one another in interactive breakout groups. This will be an opportunity to make new contacts, reconnect with partners, and dig deeper on topics discussed in the earlier sessions.

Asia-Pacific/Europe/Africa: 8p AET | 5p HKT | 11a CET | 11a SAST | 10a BST
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Europe/Africa/Americas: 6:30p CET | 6:30p SAST | 5:30 BST | 12:30p ET | 9:30a PT
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Meeting attendees are welcome to join either session.

The disaster of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013 tragically killed more than 1,000 people. It also put on display the inadequacy of so-called social audits, one of which had been conducted on the buildings before the collapse. Similar incidents in different developing countries and other sectors have shown the worrying trend that the current corporate compliance practice via social audit is ineffective in capturing human rights abuses in global supply chains. This session explores the challenges of social auditing practice to protect workers’ health and rights, social audit firms’ obligations and lawyers’ role in seeking legal remediation for victims of corporate human rights abuses and strengthening human rights due diligence for companies.

Speakers:

• Jonathan Exten-Wright, DLA Piper UK LLP
• Saydia Gulrukh, DRIK and Journalist on the New Age
• Aruna Kashyap, Business and Human Rights Division
• Ana Maria Soto, Issara Institute

Moderated by Chara De Lacey, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Welcome by Julia Mayerhofer, PILnet

Sponsored by:

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

International global business operations connect consumers and communities in unseen and unprecedented ways. Since the arrival of Chinese companies that transform fish into feed for animals exported to Europe, people in The Gambia, the smallest country of Africa, are struggling to make ends meet and are pushed to seek survival by migrating to Europe. The documentary tells the story of three people: Abou, Mariama, and Paul, who share their intimate stories of survival, longing, and migratory treks that leave their mark forever. 

The discussion after the screening will focus on the very personal experience of one of the protagonists. Participants will also be able to meet the Director and discuss the role of the law and lawyers in situations like the communities in this documentary face.

Speaker:

• Abou, subject of Stolen Fish
• Gosia Juszczak, Director, Stolen Fish
• Krzysztof Wojtas, Compassion in World Farming

Moderated by: Julia Mayerhofer, PILnet

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

As NGOs have learned over the past year of Covid-19, operating successfully through unanticipated crises requires careful planning and preparation. Truly “resilient” organizations are able to bounce back from a major risk. This session looks at examples of how organizations across a variety of sectors and geographies have identified gaps and successfully partnered together to address risks and develop resilience.

Speakers:

• Katerina Hadzi-Miceva Evans, ECNL
• Özgür Kahale, DLA Piper
• Kelly Leung, UBS, Hong Kong

Moderated by Jonathan Davis, PILnet

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

Zuzanna Rudzinska-Bluszcz, Head of ClientEarth Poland, will kick off with a brief speech on the relations between the Climate Crisis and Human Rights. After her speech, the audience will have an opportunity to join the conversation, ask questions and discuss the topics with the keynote speaker.

The climate crisis is a human rights crisis. There are no human rights on a dead planet, but also we cannot save ourselves and the planet without respecting human rights. The energy and economic transition required in response to the climate crisis will have profound consequences on the societies and the planet. It is important that the weakest members of our society do not end up bearing the brunt of the consequences and the cost. Civil society and public interest lawyers are standing on the side of the weakest and call for solidarity and support.

Welcome and moderated by Andrej Nosko, PILnet

Sponsored by:

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

Sara Hossain, is Deputy Head of Chambers at Dr Kamal Hossain and Associates, and serves pro bono as the Honorary Executive Director at the Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST). Working with communities and coalitions to seek progressive interpretations of constitutional and other rights and to catalyze changes in practice is essential to public interest lawyers. Drawing on her extensive public interest litigation casework – including on inclusion and diversity issues such as gender equality and disabilities, as well as climate refugees and forced displacement – Sara will share the strategies she has employed and the impact that this approach has had across the diverse areas of her work.

After her speech, the audience will have an opportunity to join the conversation, share good practices, network with other actors, ask questions and discuss the topics with the keynote speaker.

Introduction and moderated by Jasmine Simperingham

Welcome by Leila Saad, PILnet

Sponsored by:

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

Bullying, sexual harassment, racism, sexism, discrimination — these are a few examples of toxic behavior that is unfortunately all too common in the legal profession. It is not just law firms but non-governmental organizations, and international organizations including the International Criminal Court that battle with various forms of workplace misconduct.

Speaking from her experience as a woman, a woman of color, and a human rights lawyer specialized in international criminal law, Angela Mudukuti will discuss the ills of workplace misconduct in the legal profession and the urgent and pressing need to address it everywhere including at institutions like the ICC where a much-needed light has been shone on the challenges.

Introduction and moderated by Leila Saad

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

The session explores the public interest implications which may arise in arbitrations and examines how public interest could be protected. This interactive event will highlight the novel trends in arbitration and their practical implementation.  

When lawyers talk about arbitration, they often mean contractual disputes between two private parties, typically corporations, and that are generally thought to not concern the public interest. Yet in recent years the scope of arbitration has greatly expanded. In the area of commercial arbitration, for example, it is now accepted that arbitrators have authority to determine not only claims pertaining to the formation, interpretation and performance of commercial contracts, but also statutory claims that may have crucial social implications.

Speakers:

• Fedor Belykh, Latham & Watkins
• Dolores Bentolila, White & Case
• Diane Desierto, University of Notre Dame

Moderator: Nicola Peart, Three Crowns

Sponsored by:

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

From Afghanistan to Myanmar, Syria to Venezuela, more people are forcibly displaced right now than ever before in human history. And each of these people have both common, and diverse, unmet legal needs. This interactive session explores the essential role that the global legal community plays in addressing the legal needs of refugees and others forcibly displaced.

The Global Refugee Forum Legal Community Pledge, an innovative global initiative garnering commitments from over 100 legal and refugee rights actors, aims to mobilize, connect and support the global legal community to address the legal needs of those displaced. Drawing on the experiences of the first year of implementation of the Pledge, representatives of the refugee community, local legal aid actors, international NGOs and the private sector, will highlight the value of and challenges in implementing collaborative access to justice projects. Presenters will discuss the importance of centering the views of refugees in the identification of their legal needs and in the design of such projects. They will also leave room to explore with participants how the Pledge can leverage resources and networks in their countries and regions, to increase legal assistance for refugees and others forcibly displaced and support greater access to justice, rights and solutions for those displaced.

Speaker:

• Amer Alkayed, Global Refugee-led Network MENA
• Andrew Barton, Herbert Smith Freehills
• Sharon Ekambaram, Lawyers for Human Rights
• Charles Gomes, CEPRI
• Jasmine Simperingham, PILnet

Moderator: Zaid Hydari, Refugee Solidarity Network

Sponsored by:

This guided networking session will aim at strengthening networks of public interest lawyers, particularly among PILnet’s Fellowship Programs’ participants, and other regional groups. The session will target specifically previous Fellows and hosting organizations under the various editions of PILnet Fellowship Programs, participants and speakers of the recently run Pilot Course on Public Interest Lawyering, and existing regional PIL groups and networks. During the session, participants will be encouraged to contribute to fill a map of “demand and supply” of existing PIL initiatives, discuss potential collaborations and build relationships through 1:1 and group networking.

The session will be held in English.

Facilitators:

• Giulia Patane, PILnet
• Zhong Huang, PILnet

In this session, different strategies and examples of empowering local activists and communities around the world to fight for their environmental rights will be showcased. Illustrating effective legal strategies and use of pro bono for climate and environmental justice. Examples include public participation and accountability of governments and business around the world including specific examples from Kenya, and China, as well as perspective from a law firm supporting civil society actors working on environmental and climate issues, illustrating the breadth of possible ways civil society and law firms can work together. The workshop will allow participants to interact with the presenters through asking questions and conversation to gain a deeper understanding into the role of law and specifically pro bono in fighting against climate change and environmental destruction.

Speakers:

• Claire Donse, DLA Piper
• Khadija Juma, Save Lamu
• Jinmei Liu, Friends of Nature

Moderator: Barbara Oliveira, Foundation for International Law for the Environment

Get to know the staff at PILnet, learn about our work, and explore how we could work together. Hear about our favorite projects, what inspires us, and why we are passionate about PILnet’s mission. 

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

Join our discussion and network with like-minded professionals dedicated to increasing access to legal aid and pro bono assistance for children in conflict with the law in Europe. Participants will collaborate with experts in this field and hear from a representative of the Child Advisory Board. Then, learn how to get involved with CLEAR Rights, a PILnet project in partnership with TDH Europe and other regional organizations, and co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme, which was borne out of a session at the 2019 PILnet Global Forum to enhance child-friendly legal assistance for children in conflict with the law in Europe.  A networking session will follow to collect interest in participating in the CLEAR-Rights project and share ideas.

Speakers:

• Marcos de Barros, TDH Europe
• Laurene Graziani, Proteknon
• Representatives of the Child Advisory Board

Moderated by Giulia Patane, PILnet

Sponsored by:

The CLEAR Rights initiative co-funded by the European Union’s Justice Programme.

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

As seen in the massive surge in demonstrations across the world, people are taking to the streets to exercise their right to protest–a critical function of democracy.

Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, the UN Special Rapporteur on Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, will discuss the United Nations Human Rights Council’s new Guidelines for lawyers in support of peaceful assemblies, enacted in June 2021 for lawyers and legal practitioners on their vital roles in ensuring the respect for the right to assembly. The Guidelines aim to offer best practices and guidance for lawyers around the world to maximize their potential in ensuring the right to peaceful assembly, reflecting the diverse national, cultural, and legal realities existing in the world, not offering a one-size fits all model.

We will bestow three awards, including two voted on by you! More information on voting soon.

Publico Award recognizes legal professionals with an extraordinary, passionate, and long-standing commitment to service for the public good.

Award for Exemplary Partnership in the Public Interest is awarded to the best pro bono legal project undertaken as a cross-sectoral collaboration, with an impact felt in more than one country.

Award for Local Pro Bono Impact honors the best innovative pro bono legal project at the local or national level.

Get to know the staff at PILnet, learn about our work, and explore how we could work together. Hear about our favorite projects, what inspires us, and why we are passionate about PILnet’s mission. 

Sponsored by:

Join a lively discussion of the past, present, and future of pro bono. Following a brief interview between the editor and select authors of the new book Global Pro Bono: Causes, Context, and Contestation on the state of pro bono in Brazil, South Africa, and France, the session will open to a group discussion and Q&A. Panelists will contemplate the role of the state, the bar, and intermediaries, as well as the intersection of pro bono and corporate social responsibility programs. Overarching themes such as who practices pro bono and why, as well as how to do pro bono better, will surely engender an invigorating discussion amongst panelists and participants alike. 

Speakers:

• Jeremy Perelman, Sciences Po
• Thabang Nthabi Pooe, Thulamela Group of Advocates
• Fabio de Sa E Silva, University of Oklahoma

Moderated by Scott Cummings, University of California, Los Angeles

Introduction by: Leila Saad

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

The emergence of SLAPPs as a tactic to suppress civic space has prompted advocates and watchdogs to create coalitions of public interest lawyers, civil society organizations, watchdog groups, and media outlets to protect the right to protest and speak out in the public interest. Representatives of such  coalitions in Europe, South Africa, and the United States will discuss their work and the value of coalitions. They will then lead a discussion exploring the key ingredients of building effective coalitions and the potential role that lawyers in the private sector can play in support. 

Speakers:

• Leanne Govindsamy, Asina Loyiko
• Lauren Regan, Civil Liberties Defense Center

Moderator: Charlie Holt, Greenpeace International

Introduction by: Andrej Nosko, PILnet

This Forum is all about making connections and forging partnerships. Use this time to meet, brainstorm, collaborate, and discuss with your peers.

3 ways to network:

1. Check out the coffee break room and join the conversation.
2. Invite specific people into a private video call, schedule a meeting, or send them a message.
3. Meet someone new in a 1:1 conversation, just 3 minutes at a time.

Local NGOs are at the forefront of providing legal services and are key players in strengthening access to justice and scaling up pro bono for vulnerable groups. At the same time these organizations struggle to find funding that supports their efforts and sustains their work. How can we get resources to where they really matter to empower communities in a sustainable way? This session looks at trends in philanthropy, highlights new models for funding as well as lessons learned in grantmaking, and how we can mobilize the private sector to be more engaged in funding access to justice.

Speakers:

• Stacey Cram, Namati
• Ana Maria Enriquez, Human Rights Funder Network
• Amy Grunske, Orrick

Moderated by Julie Broome, Ariadne

Sponsored by: