Thomson Reuters Foundation Announces 2024 TrustLaw Award Winners
The Thomson Reuters Foundation announced the winners of the 2024 TrustLaw Awards, an annual celebration of legal pro bono support for civil society organizations and social enterprises around the world.
“The TrustLaw Awards are an opportunity to celebrate some of the very best legal pro bono from around the world – pro bono at its most collaborative and most impactful,” said Carolina Henriquez-Schmitz, director, TrustLaw.” This year’s winners highlight the value of free legal assistance in enabling organizations to drive change – from advancing press freedom and combatting workplace violence and harassment, to supporting global reforestation.”
Each year, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reviews, judges, and selects the best pro bono projects and the most committed legal members from its network around the globe. This year’s winners are listed below.
Impact Award: Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and Allens
With free legal research and advice provided by Allens, the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom (AJF) contributed to a national review of Australia’s “secrecy laws,” leading to the development of 11 government-endorsed recommendations to refine these laws and enhance protections for journalists.
Ten leading law firms across Latin America partnered with gender equality non-profit ELA to analyze the regulatory framework around workplace violence and harassment in 11 countries. The resulting report now forms the cornerstone of ELA’s advocacy and awareness activities around this issue.
Powered by Pro Bono Award: One Tree Planted, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Altacit Global, Kimathi & Partners Corporate Attorneys, Cescon Barrieu Advogados, Basham Ringe & Correa S.C. and Meru & Njagi Advocates
Non-profit One Tree Planted uses drones to monitor hard-to-reach reforestation projects, but laws around drone use vary significantly across jurisdictions. Six leading law firms provided pro bono support to create a global regulatory guide on drone use, providing the organization with the information it needed to continue its critical work without legal hindrances.
International Law Firm of the Year Award: Milbank LLP
Milbank has been one of Trustlaw’s most reliable international members across regions, coordinating large research projects, leveraging their global network of offices to connect projects with local counsel and taking on some of the hardest to place jurisdictions.
Regional Law Firm of the Year Award: SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gamaitan
SyCipLaw is one of the most active regional firms in Asia and routinely receives stellar feedback from their pro bono clients for their work.
In-House Legal Team of the Year Award: Entain PLC
Since joining TrustLaw in 2021, the in-house legal team at Entain has done tremendous work in advocating for the importance of pro bono within the organization and taken on key projects across the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, and Scotland.
Lawyer of the Year Award: Coleen Namuyamba, Associate, Corpus Legal Practitioners
Namuyamba was named Lawyer of the Year after a highly competitive nomination process and public vote. The pro bono client who nominated her said: “We had such a collaborative working relationship with Coleen of Corpus. She was always available when we needed guidance. She always consulted on every document she prepared in the process, and we always gave input, and this ensured that they worked through our knowledge and context of the case.”
The judging criteria for each category can be viewed here.
For more on TrustLaw and this year’s awards, visit TrustLaw Awards 2024 or follow the Thomson Reuters Foundation on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.
