Pro Bono & Community Service

Participation in pro bono and community service is one of Baker & McKenzie’s core values. The following are examples of activities in our Latin America region.

Children

• In Madrid, our lawyers provide legal support to a nonprofit private organization named Plan International. Plan works to create a better future for children by alleviating poverty and creating lasting change through the defense of the children's rights.
• Lawyers in our Mexican offices are working with Pasitos in Tijuana to secure funding and scholarships for its school for autistic children.

Education

• Our Caracas office provides scholarships to low-income law students at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello.

The Environment

• We helped The Nature Conservancy purchase a cattle ranch in Mexico’s Janos Valley, one of North America’s last remaining desert grasslands and home to a variety of rare animals, including the world’s largest concentration of black-tailed prairie dogs.

Health and Wellness

• Our colleagues in Brazil collected supplies for a charity that supports families with children who have cancer and blood diseases.
• Our lawyers and staff in Mexico are contributing time, funding and energy toward construction of the first Children’s Hospital in Tijuana. Also in Mexico, our partners support Fundacion Internacional de la Comunidad (International Community Foundation) to encourage cross-border philanthropy in the Baja California region.

Legal Systems, Legal Rights

• Our intellectual property lawyers in Brazil have helped to protect the traditions and rights of indigenous communities and others who produce and sell products made with cupuacu, a fruit native to the Amazon. We helped cancel a trademark registration in Japan that would have prevented the local communities from using the cupuacu name in their products.

Teaming up with Clients

• In Mexico, we sponsored fund-raising activities with clients on behalf of Destellos de Luz, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing blindness and recovering sight for low-income individuals.