Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance selects first 5 organisations to benefit from the firm's enhanced NGO engagement programme

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance today announces that it is changing the way it manages its pro bono engagement with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that operate across jurisdictions.

The new system will take a more formalised, structured approach to these partnerships, helping the NGOs to get the most out of their support from Clifford Chance. The first five organisations to have been selected are: Asylum Access, Fair Trials International, Grameen Foundation USA, Human Rights Watch and Room to Read.

Each NGO may benefit from funding from the Clifford Chance Foundation along with pro bono support from lawyers and business services staff with a range of skills and expertise in the firm's 34 global offices. Each partnership will include: an MOU, setting out any objectives and areas of focus; at least one dedicated relationship partner and regular review meetings.

Asylum Access and Room to Read are the first organisations to receive funding from the Clifford Chance Foundation as part of this new engagement. Asylum Access will receive £100,000 this year as part of a three year funding package which will total £200,000. This is to support their expansion from operating in three countries to operating in six, a process which Clifford Chance will be assisting on with pro bono support. Room to Read will receive just over £60,000 this year as part of a three year funding package that will total £103,000. This is to fund the establishment of 12 libraries and one local language book title in Vietnam and three libraries and two book titles in Cambodia in 2012. The firm will also be providing extensive pro bono support alongside the funding.

Roger Leese, Clifford Chance's pro bono partner, said: "We are delighted to be adopting a more formalised approach to our important NGO relationships. Our aim is to take a similar approach to these partnerships as we do with our fee-paying clients, improving the quality and breadth of service they receive from Clifford Chance. We are excited to see these relationships kick off with financial support for two of these important causes."

Emily Arnold-Fernandez, Executive Director, Asylum Access has commented: "We are thrilled to have been selected by Clifford Chance for what promises to be a truly rewarding partnership. With a more formalised approach to the wealth of resources and expertise offered by Clifford Chance globally, we will now be able to plan our operations with increased certainty and, ultimately, offer help to a greater number of refugees."

As part of this new strategy, Clifford Chance has identified some criteria to help the firm select the right NGOs to engage with in this way. The criteria aim to ensure that each NGO benefits from the partnership as much as possible and that the relationship fits into the firm's own CR strategy. The criteria include the potential to engage the firm's client base, an international presence, and a close alignment with at least one of the firm's three CR themes: access to justice, access to finance and access to education.

Clifford Chance has now been providing pro bono, community and funding support to charities and NGOs around the world for the past 12 years. The firm helps a range of organisations, with projects ranging from small, one-off donations to weekly reading schemes with local schools. These latest partnerships have been selected as the firm's big ticket corporate responsibility work and will sit alongside many other community outreach and volunteering projects.