PILnet’s Award for Local Pro Bono Impact
This award honors the best innovative pro bono legal project at the local/national level.
Lila Gasca, pro bono director at Hogan Lovells Mexico, along with the directors of three mexican clearinghouses — Carla Aguilar from Fundación Barra Mexicana, Maru Cortazar and Mariana Vázquez del Mercado from Fundación Appleseed México, and Ivette Montero from Centro Mexicano Pro Bono — wrote the Pro Bono Standards México and established a movement to standardize the concept of pro bono legal work and promote pro bono culture in Mexico.
A large percentage of Mexico’s population is currently living under precarious circumstances due to different social, economic, and environmental deficiencies such as low income; lack of education; lack of access to basic services like healthcare, social security, and food; poor and insufficient housing; as well as lack of social cohesion. This vulnerable population doesn’t have access to proper legal representation.
This movement is the first step towards involving the legal community of this country, gathering together lawyers, law firms, in-house counsel, bar associations, law universities, and NGOs to do organized and standardized pro bono work and spread the pro bono culture throughout Mexico.
