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New Perimeter, DLA Piper's nonprofit affiliate dedicated to international pro bono projects, is launching the latest phase in an ambitious project that aims to help build a pro bono culture in Mexico.

Summing up the goals of the project, Betsy Cavendish, executive director of the well-known Appleseed network in the US, said, “Our multi-pronged program is meeting the goals of engaging attorneys and law students in the quest for lasting, structural changes to improve the nonprofit sector, and to enhance justice and opportunity for all.”

The project itself began late last year, when New Perimeter, with the help of DLA Piper partner Philip Zeidman, formed a partnership.with Mexico Appleseed (the first international chapter of the Appleseed network) to carry out pro bono work.

But not just any pro bono work. The project has five major components: 1) assisting Mexico Appleseed develop the Mexican Pro Bono Network, which links pro bono clients with Mexican law firms; 2) helping promote a transparent tax and corporate structure for NGOs in Mexico; 3) assisting Mexico Appleseed’s efforts to provide the public with consumer financial education; 4) teaching seminars on pro bono to law students at the Universidad Panamericana (UP); and 5) providing training and technical assistance on the Oral Trials Bill.

During the first phase of the project, a team of DLA Piper lawyers (Juan M. Alcalá, Lisa Dewey, Jenny Lloyd, Rich Gruenberger and Roberta Ritvo travelled to Mexico to teach a semester-long seminar entitled “Pro Bono, Advocacy and Social Change” at UP, one of Mexico’s premier law schools. Guest speakers included the former Attorney General of Mexico Jorge Madrazo and Everardo Moreno Cruz, a prominent formal presidential candidate. The classes introduced students to the common law system and focused on the importance of pro bono work in the American legal system as well as the way it is evolving in other regions. Maru Cortazar, executive director of Mexico Appleseed, later observed: “The lectures gave the students the tools to understand the theory and social impact of pro bono legal work, and also the ability to apply this practice in their professional future.”

Mentoring by the DLA Piper team and by Mexican lawyers was another essential component of the project. Mexico Appleseed also paired the law students with Mexican attorneys to complete a project for pro bono clients. “The feedback received by the students and the Law School at UP could not have been better, and the school has asked us to repeat this course in January 2010,” said Cortazar.

In April, Cortazar participated on a panel in Washington, DC at an Appleseed conference, “Creating a Pro Bono and Philanthropic Culture in Mexico.” Dewey also spoke on the panel, discussing DLA Piper/New Perimeter's project with Mexico Appleseed. At a reception at the Mexican Cultural Institute following the conference, Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s. Ambassador to the United States, praised New Perimeter’s partnership with Mexico Appleseed in helping to develop a culture of pro bono and philanthropy.

A new phase of the project is now in full swing. DLA Piper lawyers have been interviewing immigrant children who entered the US unaccompanied by adult family members and are being heldin detention centers throughout the country. The project aims to improve the repatriation system as well as the treatment of these children during their detention. DLA Piper lawyers are seeking to document how the children are being treated. The lawyers will use their findings as a basis to work with Mexican and American policy makers to improve the repatriation processes for those minors returned to Mexico. This project is being led by David Nachman, counsel in New York and co-chair of DLA Piper’s Career Advancement Center.

Meanwhile, other aspects of the partnership with Mexico Appleseed also are going forward. Evan Migdail and Gaby Regojo have been working with the Hewlett Foundation in Mexico to research the laws granting tax exempt status to charities and NGOs. And Diana Chafey and Regojo have recently begun a project to promote microinsurance policies in Mexico.