PILnet’s Global Awards celebrate and honour the extraordinary efforts made to strengthen civil society, advance social change, and protect the public interest.
Global Partnership Award
Reed Smith collaborates with the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD) and seven other international law firms to support the Rule 39 Project, which was named winner of the ‘Global Partnership Award’.
The project supports vulnerable individuals, and the NGOs working with them - preparing and lodging applications before the European Court of Human Rights, including requests for interim measures under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court. These are urgent measures to prevent irreparable harm to fundamental human rights such as the right to life or the protection against torture.
This is a truly collaborative project utilising the collective efforts of CILD, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Linklaters, Orrick, Osborne Clarke, Reed Smith, Dr Daria Sartori (Project Supervisor) and Muriel Vicquery (Project Officer).
Reed Smith partner Daja Apetz-Dreier and associates Dimitris Athanasopoulos and Katrin Gerceker lead the firm’s work on this project, with support from Jessica Tagg from the EMEA Pro Bono team.
Local Impact Award
Reed Smith is a founding member of the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA), which was named winner of the ‘Local Impact Award’.
DARA is a multi-firm advocacy alliance and the largest pro bono project ever assembled in this jurisdiction to provide end-to-end representation and advocacy support for domestic abuse survivors seeking protective orders against their abusers.
The DARA member firms are: Travers Smith, Reed Smith, Hogan Lovells, Latham & Watkins, Slaughter and May, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Debevoise & Plimpton, DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
The Reed Smith team leading DARA is made up of partner Sally-Anna Underhill and associates Alia Khalil, Alfred Perkins and Louisa Martac, with support from Becca Naylor from the EMEA Pro Bono team.
Naylor, counsel and Reed Smith’s head of pro bono across EMEA, said: “We are very proud to win these accolades in collaboration with the other firms, organisations and individuals involved. They are both hugely important causes and we are grateful to our lawyers for the impactful contribution they have made.”