Rome, November 14, 2024—PILnet honored the extraordinary efforts by the legal community and NGOs to advance social justice and protect the public interest around the world at an awards dinner and reception held in Rome on November 13.
Nearly 300 attendees gathered at Parco dei Principi to celebrate the work of our partners in four award categories: the Global Partnership Award, the Local Impact Award, the Pro Bono Publico Award, and the Popular Choice Pro Bono Award. For both the Global Partnership Award and the Local Impact Award, we received nominations from organizations across the world.
The Global Partnership Award recognizes the most innovative pro bono legal project undertaken as a cross-sectoral collaboration with an impact felt in more than one country. This year, the nominated projects addressed critical global issues such as advocating for sexual and reproductive rights, representation of political prisoners in various jurisdictions, climate change impact on juvenile justice systems, and forced displacement.. Five outstanding projects were shortlisted and reviewed by an external committee of judges.
The winner of the 2025 PILnet Global Partnership Award was The Armenia Pro Bono Collaborative Project (The International and Comparative Law Centre, and law firms Orrick, Baker McKenzie, Simmons & Simmons, and Reed Smith). This project collaborates with the Artsakh Union, an NGO representing the rights and dignity of forcibly displaced people from the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). The project was launched in response to the urgent need for legal redress for ethnic Armenians displaced following renewed conflict in the region.
The Local Impact award recognizes the most innovative pro bono legal project with an impact felt at the local or national level. These nominated projects responded to issues such as mental health and suicide prevention, financial sustainability, and advocacy for the rights of people without shelter, among many more. The winner of the 2025 PILnet Local Impact Award was “Enfance Précarité Zéro” (No Precarious Children) Alliance des Avocats pour les Droits de l’Homme (Alliance of Lawyers for Human Rights). This program has been committed to supporting unaccompanied minors who face multiple obstacles in accessing their rights, from obtaining a residence permit to navigating complex asylum procedures. In 2024 alone, they provided legal support to 330 minors, not only through individual casework but also through “Know Your Rights” workshops. They also trained 213 lawyers and legal professionals and 128 social workers to better respond to the legal needs of unaccompanied minors.
The PILnet Pro Bono Publico Award recognizes legal professionals with an extraordinary, passionate, and long-standing commitment to service for the public good. This year’s recipient was David Manne. David has an incredible sucesss rate in securing refugee rights through the courts and is a leader on pro bono public-private sector partnerships, having built a refugee rights pro bono project that involves 27 firms. David was a founding member of the Pledge. While he has received a number of awards in Australia he has never received any international awrads and has not received any more recenlty – despite continuing to be involved in some incrediby impactful strategic litigation cases in the last few years.
PILnet’s Popular Choice Pro Bono Award recognizes the pro bono project that PILnet Global Forum attendees view as the most impactful. Forum participants had the opportunity to vote on the shortlisted projects for the Global Partnership Award and Local Impact Award prior to the awards dinner. The 2025 Popular Choice Pro Bono Award went to Landmark UN Human Rights Committee Rulings on Reproductive Rights (Debevoise & Plimpton and the Center for Reproductive Rights). In May 2019, Debevoise & Plimpton, working with the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed petitions with the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of four rape survivors from Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Ecuador. These cases highlighted systematic violations of sexual and reproductive rights, lack of judicial recourse for survivors, and insufficient access to reproductive health education and services. In January and May 2025, the Committee issued landmark rulings in favor of the survivors, establishing new international legal standards for reproductive rights.
PILnet congratulates these winners and the excellent work of all of the nominees. We look forward to another year of developing partnerships between the private and public sectors and working together to use law as a tool for social change.
PILnet is a non-governmental organization that serves as a global network for public interest law and pro bono legal services. We arrange high-quality, free legal assistance for nonprofits to support them in building more just and equitable societies. We build networks of public interest and private sector lawyers striving to make the law work for all, and we nurture the next generation of public interest-minded legal professionals.
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If you would like more information on PILnet or the PILnet Global Awards, please contact Director of Communications and Events, Candice Johnson at [email protected].