As part of our commitment to access to justice and community engagement, Dentons is a proud member of the steering committee of the European Pro Bono Week 2024, which will take place on June 10-14, 2024. In addition, Dentons lawyers will be actively engaged in events in various countries, including:

• Germany: Peter Braun, Dentons Partner and Chairman of Pro Bono Deutschland, will be moderating a panel discussion entitled “Initiative to improve the legal framework for pro bono”. (Wednesday 12 June 2024, 5-6:30pm)
• Italy: Dentons will be hosting the Italian Pro Bono Roundtable, with Dentons partner Federico Sutti and Positive Impact Director Atanas Politov giving the opening remarks. Federico Fusco will serve as a panelist in a discussion entitled "The Third Sector in the times of AI. The role of organized civil society between responsibilities and opportunities". (Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 12-4pm)
• Belgium: Dentons will be hosting the Brussels Pro Bono Roundtable on the state of play of pro bono in Brussels. Atanas Politov, Dentons Positive Impact Director, and partner Laurens Engelen will give a short opening talk. (Thursday, June 13, 2024, 6:15-8 pm)

Pro bono highlights

In 2023, Dentons devoted more than 21000 pro bono hours in Continental Europe alone. Highlights of our pro bono projects over the last year include:

• Whistleblower protection in Slovakia: Dentons secured a landmark court victory for Maria Koránová, a whistleblower who was wrongfully dismissed from the Košice ambulance service after she filed a criminal report with the police to report the suspicions she came across as chief economist. The Košice City Court ruled that her dismissal was invalid and that she should continue to be employed by the organization. Dentons is providing pro bono legal representation to Mária Koránová in collaboration with Nadácia Zastavme korupciu (Let's Stop Corruption Foundation).
• Italian Pro Bono Collaborative for Afghan Refugees: The Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights has teamed up with Dentons, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters and Orrick to form the Italian Pro Bono Collaboration for Afghan Refugees (CIPBRA), which provides pro bono legal advice and representation to Afghan asylum seekers seeking to settle in Italy for humanitarian reasons or to reunify with family members.
• Greece Pro Bono Collaborative for Refugees: Dentons continues its long-term collaboration with European Lawyers in Lesvos (ELIL), as well as law firms Orrick, White & Case, Ashurst, Allen & Overy, and Charles Russell Speechlys to provide pro bono legal advice to asylum seekers arriving in Greece. Amsterdam-based associate, Mert Danismant, shared the following comment about his recent pro bono secondment to the project in Athens: “Participating in this secondment was an enriching experience that not only broadened my legal expertise but also fostered valuable connections with colleagues at ELIL. The collaborative environment, coupled with challenging projects, provided the perfect platform for professional growth and development. I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the team's success and look forward to applying the insights gained from this experience in my future endeavors.”
• Roma rights in Slovakia: In September 2023, Dentons secured an important appeal victory for a group of Slovak Roma whose homes were destroyed as communal waste. The Košice Regional Court ruled in favor of the nine Romani plaintiffs who were forcibly evicted from their homes in Košice under the pretext of waste removal by the city authorities. The inhabitants were offered no alternative accommodation after their homes were demolished, and as a result, they became homeless. The Court upheld the previous judgment of the District Court Košice II that authorities had discriminated against the community on the basis of their ethnicity and that they violated their human dignity and right to private life.
• Environmental protection in Africa: Dentons lawyers across Europe and Africa are providing ongoing legal advice to JustDiggit, a Netherlands-based non-profit organization working on landscape restoration in Africa. Using water harvesting, agroforestry, and climate-resilient agriculture, JustDiggit aims to increase local water availability and restore the vegetation cover in degraded areas. On a larger scale, these landscape changes may help alter local climatic conditions (evapotranspiration, temperature, cloud formation), which in turn can lead to large-scale climate impacts.

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