The Thomson Reuters Foundation has named the recipients of its 2016 TrustLaw Awards, an annual ceremony to celebrate global pro bono projects undertaken by legal teams with NGOs and social enterprises.

Winners announced at the awards ceremony in New York include:

  • IMPACT AWARD: Kirkland & Ellis partnered with Equality Illinois, an LGBT rights NGO, on a legal research project which provided the groundwork for successful advocacy efforts to ban gay conversion therapy for LGBT youths in Illinois.
  • COLLABORATION AWARD: Latham & Watkins led a consortium of lawyers, consultants and academics across 12 countries to produce urgent legal advice for the International Rescue Committee in response to the European refugee crisis.
  • INNOVATION AWARD: Microsoft and Ashu Thakur & Associates, a specialist healthcare and intellectual property firm in India, teamed up with BEMPU Health, an Indian social enterprise to protect and commercialize a temperature monitoring bracelet designed to combat neonatal hypothermia.
  • INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR: Latham & Watkins in recognition of their assistance with a record 49 pro bono projects through TrustLaw this past year.
  • DOMESTIC LAW FIRM OF THE YEAR: Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa – a deserving accolade for the most active local firm in the TrustLaw network.
  • IN-HOUSE LEGAL TEAM OF THE YEAR: Hewlett Packard Enterprise in recognition of the 19 pro bono projects completed by the corporate counsel team this year.
  • LAWYER OF THE YEAR AWARD: Yvonne Chilume, founder of Chilume & Company in Gaborone, Botswana, and a team of associates from Kirkland & Ellis: David Birnbaum, Evan Knobloch and Jonathan Man.

“The Awards commemorate these extraordinary projects, the brilliant lawyers who volunteer brain time for free, and the NGOs and social enterprises who work tirelessly to drive social change,” said Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation and founder of TrustLaw, during the ceremony.

Each year, firms from around the globe nominate projects, which are then reviewed, judged and selected by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, while the winner of the Lawyer of the Year category is selected after a public vote of short-listed nominees.

For more on TrustLaw and this year’s awards, visit http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/awards/2016/.

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