Pro Bono

Akin’s global pro bono practice leverages the experience, knowledge and passion of our lawyers, advisors and business services personnel to maximize access to justice, community development and the rule of law. Our long-standing partnerships with legal services organizations worldwide are an essential component of our pro bono practice.

Worldwide, we represent refugees seeking asylum, tenants fighting eviction, veterans seeking health benefits, domestic violence survivors, nonprofit organizations and other clients in need.

Advancing Access to Justice

Our lawyers engage in the issues of the day through individual representation, public interest litigation, legislative counseling and transactional counseling. For instance, our transactional lawyers structure sophisticated deals for a wide range of pro bono clients, from sovereign governments in the developing world to charter schools serving lower-income students.

Akin utilizes all of our personnel to advance access to justice. In recent years, Akin lawyers devoted, on average, more than 90 hours to pro bono clients per year, and more than 70% of our lawyers worked on pro bono matters. Business services personnel have used their skills to reimagine the provision of pro bono services, including developing inventive platforms that use technology to reach and serve vulnerable populations.

Watch videos discussing our work.

Industry Recognitions

The American Bar Association (ABA) recognized these high-impact collaborations between Akin lawyers, business services personnel and legal services partners, by honoring the firm with its prestigious Pro Bono Publico Award for a second time. The award recognized our innovative remote pro bono programs, including our Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) clinic for young migrants, Afghan humanitarian parole clinic and remote consultation project, which served nearly 3,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Likewise, Akin was named a Bloomberg Law 2022 Pro Bono Innovator for using “creative ways to get around barriers for their clients” and coming up with “unique solutions to tackle complex legal matters.” Read the press release.

Accolades

• Ranked 13th on The American Lawyer's 2024 Pro Bono Scorecard: National Report out of the Am Law 200 firms
• "Excellent Performer" for pro bono work in Chamber's Associate Satisfaction Survey 2024
• ABA Pro Bono Publico Award
• Bloomberg Law Pro Bono Innovators
• NLADA Beacon of Justice Award
• Legalweek Leaders in Tech Innovations in Pro Bono Award Law Firm category
• Advocates for Human Rights Volunteer Award
• Euromoney’s Global Women in Business Law Award (shortlisted)
• IFLR Middle East Awards Pro Bono Team of the Year (shortlisted)

Learn more about our recognitions.

Our Programs and Initiatives

• Legal Services Organizations
• Pro Bono Scholars program
• Equal Justice Works

Corporate Client Collaborations

We provide resources to assist U.S. and U.K. companies in developing pro bono policies and creating projects for their legal departments.