Clifford Chance

After its successful launch in the US, we have rolled out Paladin, the online portal for pro bono and volunteering opportunities, to our people in the UK, continental Europe and the Middle East.

Paladin is an efficient, accessible and transparent way for people to access and select opportunities best suited to them and, to date, more than 2,500 lawyers and business professionals have signed up.

To date, more than 620 projects have been posted on the platform. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with most saying Paladin has reduced the amount of time it takes to identify interesting pro bono and volunteering opportunities by 75%.

One lawyer who has taken advantage of Paladin’s rollout to Europe is Octavio Canseco from our Madrid office, who is now helping a Spanish shark conservation NGO in a case regarding a public subsidy.

“It’s really intuitive to use,” Octavio says. “You can specify which areas you’re interested in, whether you wish to volunteer as a lawyer or in the community, and the field in which you feel you can help the most.

“Previously, we’d only hear about opportunities by email, and you would have to navigate your way through them all if you wanted to find something. Now it’s much easier, which makes it more likely people will want to get involved.”

As well as improving the volunteering experience, Paladin is also helping us to deliver on our key strategic objective of contributing towards the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, it strengthens our ability to help our volunteers to develop skills through pro bono work.

“Working with the conservation NGO enabled me to refresh my knowledge of public subsidy legislation here in Spain,” adds Octavio. “And it’s opened my eyes to the difference between working for an NGO and a corporation, which I know will be useful in my career and to the firm.”