A1 Law Office announced the launch of the first charitable platform in Russia for lawyers - LegalCharity.
Persons seeking legal services and unable to pay for them on the market terms will be able to receive qualified legal aid on the pro bono gratuitousness principles on the LegalCharity (https://legalcharity.ru/) platform.
One of the strategic objectives of A1 Law Office is to create the practice of social advocacy in Russia based on the implementation of pro bono projects and the popularization of social advocacy.
"Social advocacy is a new emerging area of law firms' activity in Russia. One of the main problems of social advocacy is the lack of a simple and transparent way of communication between the people seeking legal assistance on pro bono principles and the members of the legal community. The new public platform for charitable legal services, LegalCharity, is designed to solve this particular problem," said Alexander Zablotskis, Chairman of the A1 Law Office.
The following major law firms are the partners of LegalCharity:
- Monastyrsky, Zyuba, Stepanov & Partners (https://www.mzs.ru);
- Hogan Lovells (https://www.hoganlovells.com/en/locations/moscow);
- Forward Legal (https://forwardlegal.com/);
- Dentons (https://www.dentons.com/ru);
- Vinder Law Office (https://vinder.pro/homepage);
- BGP Litigation (https://www.bgplaw.com).
Alexey Karpenko
Senior Partner of Forward Legal
"The lack of qualified legal support has a negative impact not only on the specific entrepreneurs and companies, but also on the business climate in general. Creating a new format of open and transparent social advocacy will help to improve this situation. Therefore, we highly appreciate the pro bono initiative of our colleagues and are happy to join the LegalCharity project."
Alexey Zakharko
Managing Partner of Dentons Legal Office
"This is a necessary and timely project for the Russian market. Today, many small and medium-sized businesses are experiencing a shortage of financial resources, a heavy burden on the staff and significant uncertainty. LegalCharity will not only help to solve legal problems for those who do not have the opportunity to pay for legal services, but will also draw the attention of the legal community to the current social problems. Being a firm conducting large-scale pro bono work around the world, including in Russia, Dentons provides free legal advice to non-profit, social and charitable organizations, and is willing to support this initiative and become a partner of the project."
Natalia Gulyaeva
Managing Partner of Hogan Lovells CIS
"Being aware of the importance of the rule of law and access to justice, the Hogan Lovells team has a long tradition of supporting innovative social projects, of which LegalCharity is a prime example. Pro bono is an integral part of professional practice in Hogan Lovells, and together we spend on social projects over 150,000 hours free of charge a year. We are sure that working together in the framework of LegalCharity will change the world for the better."
Anton Aleksandrov
Managing Director of "Monastyrsky, Zyuba, Stepanov & Partners"
"Monastyrsky, Zyuba, Stepanov & Partners" actively participates in the implementation of pro bono projects, is the founder of the Fund of Grateful Alumni of the International Law School of the MSIIR and supports various law student competitions.
MZS joined the LegalCharity platform and believes that its creation will contribute to the spread of pro bono practices in the Russian Federation and the solution of a wide range of social problems, the solution of which is impossible without qualified legal assistance."
Artem Abramov
Managing Partner of Vinder Law Office
"We always welcome pro bono activities, which are aimed at professional assistance to the most socially vulnerable categories of citizens. However, as everywhere else, pro bono activities may have some abusive practices and often help is provided to the wrong people. However, we are happy to respond to the offer of our colleagues from A1, because in this case we are sure that the provided assistance will really correspond to the criteria that we imply under pro bono."
Timur Unarokov
Partner of BGP Litigation
"Today, a lot of law firms are engaged in pro bono projects, but spot stories will not change the situation radically. Consolidating the leading players of the Russian legal market on the LegalCharity platform is an important stage in the industry development. Systematic and qualified assistance allows not only covering more projects, but also contributing to the market development as a whole.
Guided by the idea of uniting the legal community, we have launched the "Lawyers Help Children" foundation. The goals of the foundation totally coincide with the platform, so there is no doubt that the synergy of these projects will allow us to develop the charitable legal support institute more quickly and more effectively."