On this World Day Against Child Labour, The Global Pro Bono Bar calls for continued efforts by those in the private sector, public sector, and broader civil society alike to work together at this time of global public health concern toward the full realization of UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7 and an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025. 

https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-day-against-child-labour  

- The Global Pro Bono Bar Association

February 20, 2020 marks the United Nations’ World Day of Social Justice. 

In a world of frenetic globalization, fueled by technology and financialization, justice for the oppressed, exploited and persecuted in the world’s societies is just as paramount a concern now as it was in 2008 when the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization.   

Like the ILO, The Global Pro Bono Bar Association seeks to stand in the gap for those left behind or forgotten in globalization.

Our vision is to empower individual Advocates of Conscience around the world to work together to realize universal human rights, human dignity, and critical public interest advocacy in areas of broad moral consensus.  In order to support those negatively impacted by or forgotten in globalization, we transfer the capacity for high-quality, impactful, and meaningful engagement from areas of overabundance to areas of need.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people". 

Are you looking for a way to help make a difference in the world?   Join The Global Pro Bono Bar today.

"What makes the desert beautiful," said the little prince, "is that somewhere it hides a well...." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

The legal profession is both a business and a calling.  Popular stereotypes of lawyers readily conjure up images of the former, understanding of the latter is more elusive.  While it is true that legal practice has been known to provide material benefits for some, something a bit less tangible and far more noble draws a significant number of us to study and to practice law, namely, the desire to advocate on behalf of those in need to change bad situations for the better, whether in a single client’s life or in the world at large. As with so many of life’s dreamers, legal professionals often begin their careers with the best intentions, but lose sight of their noble goals amid the challenges life presents along the way.

But wait. What if it were possible for those who have legal training, legal experience, and a heart to make positive change to put their legal talents to meaningful use in parts of the world where they are needed most, whether near or far, and whether as practicing lawyers or other legal professionals, law students, law professors, or even former lawyers who retired or left the practice of law to raise families? Realizing the powerful implications of the answer to this question is the purpose and the promise of The Global Pro Bono Bar Association (“The Global Pro Bono Bar”). The Global Pro Bono Bar is about working to channel pools of good will and excess legal capacity that often lay waste in globalization’s legal landscape into transnational pipelines, supporting local advocates struggling to do good in areas thirsty for public interest legal support around the globe. At the same time, it is also about reclaiming the noble dreams of those who once came to the law to make a difference, making it possible for them to rediscover their own wells in the desert.

Are you looking for a way to make a difference with your legal skills?  Join The Global Pro Bono Bar Association today.

Dear Fellow Member of the Bar,

With the arrival of 2020, we turn the page not only on another year, but also on another decade, and what an auspicious new year it is! 

In 2020, The Global Pro Bono Bar prepares to celebrate the momentous milestone of two years of incorporation with the launch of two core initiatives intended to lay the groundwork for a brighter future for conscientious pro bono or public interest advocacy as well as for a more meaningful living, breathing legal professionalism across the global legal landscape. 

First, in A Call To Revolution, our open letter to fellow members of the Bar around the world, we invite all individual legal professionals to join with us in a call for moral awakening across the global legal profession in recognition of the individual imperative we all share to work hand-in-hand within and across borders to build a better future for our common humanity.  If you have not yet had a chance to read this open letter and to join as a signatory, please take a moment to do so now.  

Second, The Global Pro Bono Bar is pleased to announce the launch of The Global Pro Bono Pledge, calling upon leaders in the private sector to join with us in affirming the absolute necessity for all legal professionals who work for them (absent any clear legal barrier) to maintain freedom in selecting pro bono projects and providing pro bono or public interest legal services as a matter of individual conscience and legal professionalism, not only when it is convenient for market positioning, but rather as and when there is an opportunity to make a difference. 

A new year has arrived, and with it new possibilities for us as individual legal professionals and for the global legal profession.  If you, your friends, or colleagues have not yet become members of The Global Pro Bono Bar, please take a moment to do so now. 

There has never been a better time than 2020 to join us in The Legal Revolution to Fight Global Injustice!

Sincerely Yours in The Bar,

Rob

Rob Houston
Executive Director
The Global Pro Bono Bar Association