Lawyers Without Borders

A MID-CAREER TRIAL lawyer from Connecticut, Christina M. Storm, founded Lawyers Without Borders in 2000. She envisioned a global association of lawyers dedicated to the promotion and protection of human justice through the provision of pro bono services. In just a short time it has grown to be the largest global organization of its kind. It is composed entirely of volunteer lawyers who offer a wide range of legal services for free to promote and protect human rights, rule of law, and justice.

Lawyers Without Borders links its members to nonprofit and community-based organizations working with low-income, underserved, and disadvantaged communities in need of human rights protection. Lawyers Without Borders is widely supported and highly acclaimed. In 2003 it was granted associative status with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UN-DPI). This status will improve Lawyers Without Borders’ growing efforts to participate in UN functions aimed at collaborating with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Lawyers Without Borders was placed on the State of Connecticut Pro Bono Honor Roll of 2003 in recognition of its contribution to the pro bono community.

In 2004 the Economic and Social Council division of the United Nations (ECOSOC) granted Lawyers Without Borders special consultative status. The approval of consultative status opens additional opportunities for Lawyers Without Borders to meet other NGOs and to collaborate with various international organizations. This status gives Lawyers Without Borders the ability to obtain UN grounds passes, designates authorized representatives to sit as observers at public meetings of the council and its subsidiary bodies, and permits members of Lawyers Without Borders to attend international conferences called by the UN.

Volunteers who donate their time and expertise to the Lawyers Without Borders cause help achieve the goals in several ways: researching rule-of-law issues and human rights; analyzing information and report writing, as well as in-country research; writing reports, newsletters, [Page 629]and concept papers; attending human rights conferences, United Nations conferences and sessions, and educational and training programs; initiating independent and self-funded assessment teams for rapid response and interventions; and issuing neutral observations and reports.

Lawyers Without Borders has several core programs: the Pro Bono Law Link program recruits lawyers to represent nonprofit organizations around the world on a pro bono basis. In linking volunteer lawyers with nonprofits, the talents, resources, issues, interests, and needs of both lawyers and nonprofits are given careful consideration. A goal of each linkage is to create a rewarding pro bono experience for both lawyers and their nonprofit clients, increasing the potential for a sustained lawyer-client relationship. This initiative gives lawyers a place as key players in global efforts to increase capacity-building of NGOs.

The Lawyers at Risk program provides rapid response and intervention in conflict and turmoil regions, especially to lawyers who, in defending human rights, become targets of criminal prosecution. The Lawyer-toLawyer program links lawyers to mentor lawyers in developing nations. The Neutral Observers program provides neutral and independent legal observations of prison detainees, closed courts, and other internal functions. The Creating Legal Accessibility and Resources for Students program links current law students with human rights or international law-research needs of nonprofit organizations.

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