Lawyers Without Borders

Lawyers Without Borders is a not-for-profit 501c3 corporation whose mission is to protect the integrity of legal process, serve the underserved, and promote the culture of pro bono service in the legal profession- all with a neutral orientation. It fulfills its mission through

• Lawyer and Judge trial advocacy training

• Cultivating lawyer skill sets to create effective strategies in the human rights in developing sectors

• Conducting neutral observation of trials, conflict scenarios and detention facilities

• Developing and delivering programming that builds capacy andtechnical assistance in developing regions and regions emerging from conflict or contemplating transition.

LWOB holds special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council Division (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, has associative status with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) and is accredited to the Department at the UN on the question of Palestine. LWOB and its lawyers engage regularly with the United Nations. LWOB online volunteers through the United Nations Online Volunteering service have been recognized for four successive years for their contributions to human rights and development through their work with LWOB.

LWOB channels legal service and counsel through lawyers who work both virtually and in the field. It recruits and manages lawyers from around the world and from a wide variety of practice sectors in the legal profession.

LWOB’s funding sources include support from a handful of international law firms with whom it maintains a close pro bono collaborative relationship, individuals' private donations and a variety foundation and government grants.

Our work falls into four programmatic categories:

1) STTAT and TOT: Support Through Trial Advocacy Training (Themes: Criminal, Trafficking in Persons, Inheritance & Succession, Gender and/or Domestic Violence, Electoral Challenges/Electoral Violence, Corruption, Family and Juvenile and Train the Trainer training (not limited to trial advocacy).

2) CORP: Community Out Reach Projects & Materials: (Themes: Electoral Rights, Participatory Democracy, Universal Human Rights, Criminal Justice, Corruption, Human Trafficking, Mediation, Negotiation and Consensus Building, Access to Justice)

3)OBSERV: Neutral Independent and Impartial Observation: Includes Court Trials (Typically closed or with limited access), Detention facilities/conditions, conflict/post conflict scenarios

4)TACAB: Technical Assistance and Capacity Building: (Electoral Roadmaps, Case Digests, Bench Books, as examples)

LWOB’s goals are dual-purposed: To strengthen Rule of Law and grow the role of pro bono lawyers in Rule of Law programming--promoting a culture of pro bono that takes the best lawyers have to offer and making that available to those in the world whose needs are under served.