Akin Gump Provides Pro Bono Support to Global Wildlife Conservation for Rainforest Protection

(Dallas) – Akin Gump is providing pro bono legal services to Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) in connection with a series of auctions of artwork and other items to fund the purchase and conservation of high biodiversity wilderness areas.

Four auctions over the past seven months have raised more than $10 million to go toward the purchase and preservation of land with exceptional concentrations of unique and threatened species, including land in one of the last unprotected cloud forests in the Americas. This includes a live auction of travel packages, Broadway shows and more at GWC’s Wild Night for Wildlife in Austin, Texas, on April 11; an auction with Christie’s Auction House in September 2018; and art auctions in Miami and Los Angeles.

With these funds, GWC, which conserves the diversity of life on Earth by protecting and restoring wildlife and habitat in more than 50 countries, will create and manage protected areas in key ecosystems around the globe, including establishing a reserve of irreplaceable rainforest approximately three times the size of Manhattan.

Akin Gump assisted GWC on the agreements with the donors of the artwork, the agreements with Christie’s, and the master agreement with the in-country charity that will manage the reserve project. 

Akin Gump corporate partner Alan Laves is leading the team advising GWC. He has been assisted by more than a dozen other Akin Gump attorneys, including tax senior counsel Ken Alderfer, cross-border transactions counsel David Kohler and corporate associate Kathryn Betts.

About Akin Gump’s Pro Bono Practice

Akin Gump’s commitment to serving clients in need irrespective of ability to pay is unequivocal, from asylum applicants fleeing persecution to U.S. servicemen and –women, from the indigent in the largest cities to nonprofits focused on environmental conservation. In 2018 alone, lawyers and advisors from offices across the firm donated more than 100,000 pro bono hours to individuals and organizations worldwide.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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