Global Spotlight: Combating Human Trafficking

In recognition of the thousands of men, women and children who fall prey to human trafficking in the U.S. every year, January has been declared Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness and Prevention Month.  According to the Global Freedom Center:

Modern slavery, or human trafficking, is the reprehensible practice of holding another in compelled service using whatever means necessary, be it physical or psychological. Anywhere between 12 [and] 27 million people are held in slavery around the world today – men, women, and children coerced into bonded labor, forced or sold into prostitution, held in domestic servitude, and enslaved in agricultural fields and factories.

Because anti-trafficking legal resources are severely limited and trafficking victims are rarely in a position to pay for legal assistance, pro bono plays a pivotal role in protecting and empowering trafficking victims and bringing traffickers to justice.  Whether by helping an undocumented victim obtain a T or U nonimmigrant visa, representing survivors in a civil suit against their traffickers, drafting model anti-trafficking laws, or working to expose and redress noncompliance with the federal Trafficking Victim Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), pro bono lawyers are a force majeure in the U.S. movement to break the chain.

The Human Rights Group at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC* undertakes innovative, complex human trafficking litigation.  In the tragic case of Ramchandra Adhikari v. Daoud & Partners, Cohen Milstein is taking on two corporations – Daoud & Partners (Daoud) and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) – on behalf of a trafficking survivor and the families of twelve deceased victims.  The complaint alleges that the companies collaborated to increase profits by obtaining cheap labor to work at U.S. military base camps in Iraq.  They trafficked young Nepali men to Iraq under the pretext that the men would be working at a luxury hotel in Jordan or in an American camp in the U.S.  The men were assured that working conditions would be safe and promised $500 per month for their labor.

But, when the men arrived in Jordan, Daoud allegedly confiscated their passports and informed them that they would be transferred to a camp in Iraq.  They traveled by caravan along the dangerous Amman-to-Baghdad highway without any security.  En route, the Ansar al-Sunna Army, Iraqi insurgents, abducted twelve of the men.  Their captors sent a video of the Nepali men to the Foreign Ministry of Nepal.  In the video, the men state:  “We were kept as captives in Jordan at first . . . were not allowed to return home . . . and were forced to go to Iraq.”  The insurgents killed all twelve men.

One man, Buddi Prasad Gurung, made it to the U.S. base in Iraq.  However, when he learned about the deaths of the other twelve, Gurung became frightened and asked to go home.  Daoud and KBR allegedly informed him that he would not be permitted to depart until his work was finished.  They held Gurung against his will for 15 months before they allowed him to leave.

The Nepali plaintiffs are suing Daoud and KBR under the TVPRA, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, Alien Tort Statute, and negligence theories.  Last month, Cohen Milstein overcame a significant jurisdictional hurtle in this novel case when it presented sufficient evidence to persuade a U.S. court to assume jurisdiction over the foreign defendant, Daoud, in this transnational matter.  The Court held that Daoud has sufficient contacts with the U.S. to warrant general jurisdiction.  Cohen Milstein attorney Molly McOwen told The PBEye:

This is one of the first cases under the TVPRA against a corporation, and certainly the first of its kind involving the trafficking of individuals to a U.S. military base.  Since the Court announced last month that it has personal jurisdiction over Daoud & Partners, we are now preparing to take this case to trial against both defendants.

Amidst a flurry of international media attention generated by the Daoud case, Jordan has adopted an anti-human-trafficking law.

The Daoud case isn’t Cohen Milstein’s first foray into anti-trafficking pro bono.  The firm undertook groundbreaking litigation representing survivors of the system of sexual slavery instituted by the Government of Japan in the territories it conquered during World War II.  Of the estimated 200,000 victims – euphemistically known as “comfort women” though some were as young as 10 years old – only a few thousand survived the repeated rape and beatings.  Many more perished.  Cohen Milstein sued Japan in the U.S. District Court on behalf of the survivors and the case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.  While the judicial efforts did not prove fruitful, Cohen Milstein’s lawsuit heightened the visibility of the plight of “comfort women” and the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution calling for a formal apology from the Japanese Government.

“For the client,” says McOwen, “it’s about the principle and recognition of what happened.  Our obligation is to give them the best legal representation available.  We offer them a chance to stand up to the largest corporate defendants who have the resources to hire top-notch legal counsel.  This work attracts good lawyers to the firm and gives us a sense of purpose and satisfaction.”

Drop us a comment, below, and tell us how your law firm or legal department combats human trafficking through pro bono.

* denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® 

Hat tip to PBI Legal Intern Ashley Binetti for her help with this post.

Global Spotlight: Elephant Energy

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”  Light, and pro bono service, we’d like to add.  This week, The PBEye spied a pro bono empowered initiative, Elephant Energy, that quite literally drives out darkness from rural villages across Namibia by distributing sustainable energy technologies.

Local shopkeepers distribute Elephant Energy lights to Namibian villagers. Photo courtesy of Karam Saab.

Namibia lacks the resources to meet the energy needs of its rural population.  Daily livelihood activities are rendered unsafe, inefficient, or even impossible without electricity.  For example, between 1.3 and 1.6 million women and children die worldwide each year as a result of air pollution caused by smoke inhalation from cooking fires.  For the foreseeable future, approximately one million rural Namibians residing outside the nation’s power grid will continue to live without electricity every single day.

So, when attorney Douglas Vilsack – son of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack – announced his intention to tackle Namibia’s rural energy crisis, his former law school classmate, Kilpatrick Townsend and Stockton LLP* Associate Karam Saab, promptly boarded a plane for southern Africa.  Saab spent two weeks investing his legal skills, pro bono, to help Vilsack set up Elephant Energy as a nonprofit trust in the town of Katima Mulilo.  After studying Namibia’s business laws and consulting with other local social entrepreneurs, Saab and Vilsack concluded that the best available course of action was to establish a for-profit company, and then feed its profits into the nonprofit entity.

The appropriate sustainable energy technologies (ASETs) that Elephant Energy distributes make livelihood activities easier, safer, and more efficient for rural Namibians.  Energy efficient cook stoves reduce emissions.  Solar-powered lights increase the number of hours available in a day for reading, craft-making, vocational activities, or schoolchildren’s homework.  And, the lights’ solar-charges enable villagers to charge cell phones and maintain contact with family members.  Villagers accustomed to spending $7.00 every month on candles and kerosene can now purchase a range of solar-powered lights for between $10.00 and $30.00  each.  The units produce up to four hours of light per solar charge, requiring only a replacement battery every three to five years.  Saab told The PBEye, “Such a small investment can make a big difference in people’s lives.”

NGOs, like Elephant Energy, that work to alleviate extreme poverty and suffering are cropping up in every corner of the globe.  Providing general legal support to emerging social enterprises is a richly rewarding way to use pro bono to improve the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people.  According to Vilsack, global pro bono is also good for business:

It’s very important for lawyers to establish connections with people in the developing world.  When people like Karam Saab gain an understanding of what it’s like on the ground in places like Namibia, it makes it easier for companies to do business there.  Law firms need to develop an understanding of these countries, and who they can go to, in order to competently advise businesses that want to enter these emerging markets.  In order for social entrepreneurs to do this good work, pro bono lawyers need to do their part.

Saab’s pro bono support is empowering Elephant Energy to actualize its vision for rural Namibians of “Light in every home, clean air in every kitchen, power in every hand.”

Pro bono attorney, Karam Saab, at an elephant crossing in rural Namibia. Photo courtesy of Karam Saab.

Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® Signatory, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP* has adopted the maxim, “We are lawyers.  Some of our best work isn’t billable.”  Saab, an intellectual property and patent attorney with the firm’s Denver office, took his pro bono responsibilities to heart . . . and then, all the way to Namibia.  “People around the office have heard that I’m doing this [global pro bono] work,” said Saab, “and they’re asking how they can get involved.  I see pro bono overseas as an opportunity to make perhaps an even greater impact on people’s lives than is possible in the U.S.”

For assistance incorporating a global element into your firm or legal department’s pro bono scheme, contact Global Pro Bono Project Coordinator Julia Alanen.  Or, embark on a virtual world tour using PBI’s Global Pro Bono Atlas to explore pro bono practices and opportunities abroad.

*denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®

Global Spotlight: Vitamin Angels

Surely by now you’ve read our article, Pro Bono Food for Thought: Improving Access to Nutrition, in this month’s edition of The Wire, so you’re well aware of the important role pro bono plays in improving access to food and nutrition across America.  As it turns out, nutrition is an equally vital enterprise for firms and legal departments seeking to do global pro bono as well.

Nine hundred and twenty-five million – or one out of every seven people in the world – went hungry last year, and one in three people in developing countries suffers vitamin and mineral deficiencies.  According to UNICEF, children are exceptionally vulnerable:

Undernutrition contributes to the deaths of about 5.6 million children under five in the developing world each year.  It can lead to poor school performance and dropout, it threatens girls’ future ability to bear healthy children and it perpetuates a generational cycle of poverty.

Access to adequate food is what the U.N. describes as an empowerment right – “both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights.”  No wonder the number one Millennium Development Goal is to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty.

And one California-based nonprofit, The Vitamin Angel Alliance, Inc. (Vitamin Angels), works tirelessly to do just that.  Their mission is to reduce child mortality worldwide by connecting newborns, infants, and children under age five with essential nutrients:

Essential nutrients address chronic malnutrition and the resulting morbidity and mortality caused by vitamin deficiencies . . . Vitamin A and multivitamins are part of a foundational strategy to address nutritional gaps and help break the cycle of poverty by improving health, educational achievement and economic productivity.  Essential nutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives.

At last week’s Summit of the Angels, Goodwin Procter LLP* earned an Archangel Award for contributing hundreds of pro bono service hours to Vitamin Angels.  The firm’s legal assistance ran the gamut from nonprofit law, corporate governance, contract and lease negotiations, tax issues, and international expansion, to employment law and trademark issues.  Vitamin Angels Founder and President Howard B. Schiffer, who presented the award, underscored the mission critical role that pro bono can play in international development, “Goodwin has really helped us shape our business, gotten things done quickly and added value to all they touched.  Vitamin Angels could not be where we are today without Goodwin’s incredible support.”  Last year, with the help of its pro bono partners, Vitamin Angels’ programs reached 24 million children in 43 countries.

The takeaway?  Malnutrition is a global problem of epic proportions that is unlikely to abate without more hands on deck.  Many of the myriad NGOs, governments, and supranational institutions engaged in combating hunger and malnutrition need pro bono partners to fulfill a wide array of legal needs.  Opportunities to do rewarding, impactful pro bono abound.

Is your firm or legal department helping to combat hunger and malnutrition?  Leave us a comment and tell us about it.

*denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®

Global Spotlight: International Child Abduction

According to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, last year nearly 2,000 children were internationally abducted to or from the United States by one of their own parents, in violation of the other parent’s rights:

That’s 40 children taken from their homes and from their loved ones each week. Abductions traumatize children, their parents, friends, and family. International Parental Child Abduction is a painful scourge for so many, and it is something that deeply concerns me.

Parental kidnapping compromises and destroys parent-child relationships, uproots and destabilizes children, and typically causes acute emotional distress to everybody involved.  Today’s International Missing Children’s Day strikes us as an auspicious occasion to shine PBI’s Global Pro Bono Spotlight on a particularly compelling pro bono partnership benefitting victims of international parental kidnapping.

An international treaty, the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, provides for the swift return of internationally abducted children to their countries of habitual residence. The U.S. is currently bound to 68 other countries under the treaty, and expects to gain its 69^th treaty partner a tout de suite following Japan’s recent decision to ratify the Convention.

However, the United States’ execution of its treaty obligations is plagued by a major impediment: by taking a reservation to Article 26 of the Hague Convention, the U.S. declined to provide applicant parents with legal representation in Hague proceedings before the U.S. courts. So, in order to ensure access to justice for indigent and low-income parents abroad with children missing in the United States, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) established an International Child Abduction Attorney Network (ICAAN).

One of ICAAN’s pro bono partners is none other than Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^® Signatory, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP*. When NCMEC first approached the firm to represent a left-behind parent pro bono in a Hague abduction case, Pro Bono Partner Debbie Segal says she jumped at the opportunity:

It was quite amazing to be able to use our legal skills to facilitate a reunion between a parent and a child – there was not a dry eye in the house. The Hague cases quickly became coveted pro bono opportunities for young litigators, because they were extremely important, fast-paced, unique and exciting. After we had a few successful cases under our belts, one of our associates suggested that others could benefit from our experiences. We approached NCMEC, they embraced the idea, and the rest is history. 

So, in addition to continuing to represent left-behind parents of internationally abducted children in Hague proceedings, the firm authored a national practice manual for NCMEC, “Litigating International Child Abduction Cases Under the Hague Convention” (second edition coming soon!). Kilpatrick Townsend’s pro bono portfolio now includes a signature International Parental Abduction initiative spanning North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Recognizing that the effective functioning of the Hague Convention is dependent upon left-behind parents’ unfettered access to legal counsel, the U.S. State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues (the designated U.S. central authority under the treaty) is actively seeking legal talent to expand its pro bono Attorney Network. What’s in it for me, you ask?

• Gain exposure to international law and federal court litigation experience;
• Pro bono attorneys may recover attorneys’ fees in successful Hague proceedings (See Cuellar v. Joyce, 603 F.3d 1142 (9th Cir. 2010)) — we covered this in The Wire back when it happened, here;
• And, in the words of one pro bono attorney who recently completed his very first Hague case, “This experience reminded me of why I went to law school in the first place.”

Law firms and in-house legal departments interested in representing left-behind parents in Hague child abduction proceedings in the U.S. courts may contact the State Department’s Legal Assistance Coordinator Patricia Hoff at 202.736.9096. No prior international law experience is required.

To learn more about Global Pro Bono, or for technical assistance, contact PBI Global Pro Bono Coordinator Julia Alanen.

*denotes a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®

Global Spotlight: DLA Piper Gives Pro Bono a Bold New Perimeter

This week, New Perimeter, the global pro bono affiliate of DLA Piper LLP*,  unveils its new website, www.newperimeter.org, spotlighting the firm’s savvy approach to pro bono, an innovative model well worth replicating.

DLA Piper established New Perimeter to provide the law firm with a deliberate, strategic approach to bringing DLA Piper lawyers’ expertise to bear on some of the world’s most pressing problems. Through New Perimeter, DLA Piper lawyers from D.C. to Dubai invest their collective legal skills to advance women’s rights, combat hunger, fight HIV/AIDS, foster economic development, promote law reform, increase access to justice, and champion human rights in developing and post-conflict countries around the world.

New Perimeter boosts DLA Piper’s pro bono impact by:

• Leveraging the team-building benefits of global pro bono by engaging multi-disciplinary teams representing multiple DLA Piper offices to foster effective communication and collaboration between DLA Piper lawyers spanning multiple continents and time zones;
• Tapping DLA Piper’s rich attorney resources to bring diverse legal, cultural, and linguistic competencies to bear on the firm’s pro bono work;
• Forging strategic partnerships in each target country to ensure that DLA Piper’s pro bono efforts remain firmly grounded in the local history, culture, and existing legal aid systems; and,
• Recruiting expert advisors whose skills and experience align with DLA Piper’s signature projects and regional foci.

New Perimeter’s distinguished Advisory Board is strategically stacked with world class talent: a former judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; an international human rights lawyer, academician, and long-time Member of the Canadian Parliament; the Executive Director of the London-based International Bar Association – a World Bank consultant who formerly headed the ABA’s acclaimed Central and East European Law Initiative; a former Peace Corps Country Director; and an accomplished civil rights advocate who led a delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Oh yeah, and co-chairing this all-star Advisory Board, PBI‘s own Esther Lardent, whose recent Letter in The Wire salutes the growing interest in global pro bono among law firms and legal departments. Collectively, New Perimeter’s international dream team informs the firm’s global pro bono projects, ensuring that its legal talent is engaged in a strategic, sustainable fashion for maximum impact. DLA Piper’s inspired global pro bono model is an exciting example of the manifold rewards of doing good on a global scale.

To learn more about Global Pro Bono, or for technical assistance, contact PBI Global Pro Bono Coordinator Julia Alanen.

And be sure to stay tuned to The PBEye for an upcoming Guest Blog featuring New Perimeter’s pro bono work in Guyana. Has your firm or legal department’s pro bono gone global? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

*DLA Piper LLP (US) is a Signatory to the Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge^®