www.probono.org.br
1. Legal Services
The Instituto Pro Bono (IPB) was originally established as an independent organization in 2001. When it began, pro bono was actually outlawed by the Brazilian Bar Association. IPB was able to partially overcome that obstacle in 2002, by convincing the Sao Paulo State Bar Association to enact a resolution legalizing pro bono practice, permitting lawyers to provide free assistance to non-profit organizations, though not to individuals.
An affiliate of Conectas since 2002, the program has succeeded in enlisting approximately 190 Sao Paulo attorneys (including two former Ministers of Justice) and 20 of Brazil’s most prestigious law firms to work on behalf of hundreds of NGOs promoting the land rights of Afro-descendents, indigenous rights, women’s rights, access to education, humane treatment of juveniles in detention, and affirmative action in Brazil.
IPB serves as a clearinghouse and broker for linking participating lawyers with NGOs in need of pro bono assistance. Services run the gamut from providing expert advice to furnishing legal representation. For instance, IPB has a longstanding relationship with the Casa de Saúde da Mulher (The House for Women’s Health), which helps victims of sexual violence. Working with Reale Advogados Associados, one of Brazil’s most highly respected law firms, IPB is on standby to help guide Casa de Saúde’s clients through the process of filing police reports, participating in criminal investigations, and undertaking legal proceedings, whenever the need arises. Since 2004, the program has served more than 150 Casa clients.
An emblematic case represented by IPB was the defense of the rights of slave descendents to their lands, which were being appropriated by local land owners. IPB succeeded in obtaining a legal opinion by a well known lawyer on the demarcation of their land that has benefited over three hundred quilombola communities in the whole of Brazil. IPB published the case in a book that was widely distributed and organized a training course for lawyers working on the subject.
IPB’s four in-house attorneys also serve the larger civil society sector by providing free legal guidance to NGOs in many fields on a range of internal organizational issues, including employment law and organizational by-laws.
2. Establishing a pro bono culture in Brazil and the region
One of IPB’s overarching objectives, in addition to serving the under-served, is to contribute to a culture of volunteerism in Brazil, especially within the legal community — recognizing that lawyers’ active engagement is critical to the creation of a rule of law society. Winning approval for the practice of pro bono in Sao Paulo State in 2002, overcoming strong resistance from some of the members of the Bar Association in the process, was an important first step in that direction. IPB is engaged in ongoing advocacy directed at the National Bar, to legalize pro bono practice nationally and to extend pro bono services to individuals. The program is also working with NGO counterparts to promote pro bono practice in Latin America and in several countries in the Global South. |
