PRO BONO

WHAT DOES PRO BONO COUNSELING AT A LAW FIRM INCLUDE?

Pro Bono legal services is a professional obligation that arises from the role of lawyers in society and the importance of helping other members of our society receive free legal support “for the public good” (Pro Bono).

our pro bono work at qil+4 abogados

Our firm provides Pro Bono services in diverse areas, some of which focus on reducing the gender gap. These include a project that supports alternative education and empowerment of women, another that provides training to groups of women in rural areas of Guatemala to create businesses of handmade products to be sold worldwide, and a foundation that encourages the leadership of women around the world with the purpose of expanding their skills, connections, and visibility.

Other areas that our firm supports with Pro Bono services are education, development projects, creation of new opportunities, and strengthening of knowledge, with the purpose of generating better opportunities for people with insufficient financial resources. Finally, our firm also supports a humanitarian organization focused on issues of religious tolerance worldwide.

guatemalan pro bono foundation

In its effort to promote Pro Bono work to its highest level, QIL+4 Abogados, together with ten other Guatemalan firms, participated as a founder of the Guatemalan Pro Bono Foundation.

The Foundation’s fundamental role is to expand the field of action of Pro Bono services that is necessary in our country, and  to supplement the work done by each firm, as well as to strengthen the quality and standards required for any type of Pro Bono legal services provided. 

collaboration with vance center initiatives:

In 2005, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice (known as the “Vance Center”) brought together a group of lawyers from the entire American continent to create a declaration of principles and an action plan that would encourage more lawyers to provide Pro Bono services.

The "Pro Bono Work Declaration for the American Continent" (the Pro Bono Declaration) was born from this initiative.  The Declaration recognizes that, because public resources are insufficient to cover the legal needs of individuals and/or disadvantaged groups, in our continent many people do not have real access to the justice system. 

Therefore, signatories to the Declaration are called to action to lend a minimum of 20 hours of Pro Bono work per year. To date, approximately 500 institutions and individuals have signed the Pro Bono Declaration, and QIL+4 Abogados is proudly among them.