We encourage our lawyers to provide pro bono legal representation and to participate in other charitable, community, educational, and professional activities.  The firm believes that every attorney has the professional responsibility to provide such services.

K&L Gates typically handles hundreds of pro bono matters a year. Among other things, firm lawyers litigate civil rights cases, establish and advise nonprofit organizations, assist such organizations in transactions, and represent indigent persons in consumer, landlord-tenant, and immigration matters. We directly aid individuals who have limited means but substantial legal needs. We also provide legal counsel and public policy advocacy to help organizations advance their public service programs, and we accept court appointments to provide pro bono counsel in both civil and criminal matters.

The firm delivers pro bono services in cooperation with dozens of organizations and legal services programs, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Battersea Legal Advice Centre, Dependency CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), Gippsland Community Legal Centre, Habitat for Humanity, InMotion, International Senior Lawyers Project, Kids in Need of Defense, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, Legal Momentum, Neighborhood Legal Services Association, Public Counsel, Public Interest Law Clearing House, St. John's Legal Centre, Transitional Housing Corporation, and Volunteer Advocates for Immigrant Justice. Many K&L Gates lawyers also provide pro bono services through local legal clinics such as Legal Services for the Homeless, a clinic established by K&L Gates lawyers at a Seattle homeless shelter.

Projects in which firm lawyers collaborate with clients and across offices are increasingly common. For example, in 2011-12 the W.I.L.L.S. project, carried out in collaboration with the legal department of MetLife, produced wills, health care proxies, and powers of attorney for 155 families of New York-area firefighters. In Australia lawyers from our Melbourne office have been seconded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land organizations in northern Australia. One pro bono project in 2012 was to link Aboriginal traditional knowledge of savanna burning with 21st-century financial products. We established a new nonprofit entity, Northern Indigenous Environmental Services Limited, to facilitate access to the emerging national and international markets for trading in carbon credits.

K&L Gates has underscored its institutional support of pro bono activities in several ways. A firm-wide Pro Bono Committee, chaired by a member of the firm’s Management Committee, oversees the firm’s pro bono programs in collaboration with Pro Bono Coordinators in each K&L Gates office. The Pro Bono Committee assesses the effectiveness of the firm’s pro bono efforts and provides leadership to ensure fulfillment of our professional obligations as lawyers. K&L Gates is a signatory to the Pro Bono Institute’s Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge, an aspirational pro bono standard for large law firms. The firm and its lawyers have provided leadership in articulating both the ethical principles and the business case for pro bono and in exploring the synergy between pro bono and diversity.

Beyond pro bono legal representation, our lawyers and staff perform varied public service work in the communities where they live and work. This includes serving as members of governing bodies of educational institutions, youth sports and arts organizations, environmental concerns, and health care and research institutions, as well as social service and community organizations. Additionally, many of our lawyers and staff provide community service through an array of teaching, mentoring, and other non-legal programs.

As a result of this leadership and commitment, the firm, several of its offices, and many of its lawyers have received awards for their pro bono and public service contributions.