Our charitable giving focuses on helping meet local community needs, funding legal education projects, supporting our pro bono partners and promoting diversity in the legal profession.
 
 
Helping our local communities

White & Case provides financial support to a select number of local charities and cultural institutions. We most often support charities that help children in need, like the two projects profiled here.
 
 
Supporting an orphanage in South Africa

For the past four years, our Johannesburg office has partnered with Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (NOAH) to support a local orphanage. There are approximately 2.5 million orphans in South Africa, nearly half of whom were orphaned as a result of the AIDS pandemic. NOAH, a nonprofit that builds and maintains orphanages—called "arks"—cares for children whose families have been affected by AIDS. With the Firm's financial support covering most of its operating costs, the White & Case Actonville Ark provides more than 300 children with a safe environment, food, shelter and an education. In 2010, the Firm helped close a budget shortfall due to a decrease in international aid. White & Case employees regularly visit the Ark to deliver food, toys and other items for the orphans.
 
 
Building better schools in Laos

Our Asia region is partnering with Room to Read, an international nonprofit that promotes literacy and gender equality in education, to build a school library in Laos.

In 2010, each of our offices in Asia created a social responsibility committee. In addition to their local initiatives, the committees decided to develop a regional project. After our Singapore and Hong Kong offices sponsored the education of girls in India and Vietnam through Room to Read, the consensus was to work with Room to Read.

By year's end, donations from individuals and the Firm exceeded the $20,000 required to fund the building of a school library serving 1,000 students in Laos. Additional funds will help build classrooms. Room to Read representatives made presentations at each of our offices about the project. Many staff donated their pay for the last hour of 2010 and the first hour of 2011.
 
 
Providing emergency relief

Following the devastating floods in Pakistan, counsel Tallat Hussain organized a collection within the London office and raised £5,000, which was matched by White & Case. The funds purchased 1,200 LifeStraw® family units—long-term water purification systems—which were delivered by the Karachi Relief Trust to those in need. Through these efforts, at least 6,000 people will benefit from safe drinking water for the next three years.

Our Warsaw office donated funds to CARITAS, an international relief organization, to aid victims of the floods in Poland.
 
 
Funding legal education

Our support of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition helped underwrite the administration of the competition worldwide and enabled four teams—Ethiopia, Lesotho, Nepal and South Africa—to attend the 2010 International Rounds.
 
 
Other legal education support includes donations to:

•  Lawyers Without Borders to fund practitioner training in Africa (London)
•  European Law Students Association (Warsaw)
•  American Law Centre, a collaboration of Warsaw University and the University of Florida,
    to fund the two-semester certificate course on US Law (Warsaw)
•  Central European University for international business law research and academic awards (Budapest)
•  Berkeley Center for Law and Technology (Silicon Valley)
•  Stanford Law School's Program in Law, Science & Technology (Silicon Valley)
 
 
Supporting our pro bono partners

Many of the organizations that facilitate pro bono work rely on law firms for financial support and governance. White & Case is a major donor and is represented on the boards of the following organizations:

•  inMotion
•  Lawyers Alliance of New York
•  The Legal Aid Society of New York
•  New York Lawyers for the Public Interest
•  Public Counsel
•  Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
 
 
Other pro bono referring organizations that receive funding from White & Case include:

•  Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
•  Asian Law Alliance
•  Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center
•  Immigration Equality
•  LawWorks
•  The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
•  Legal Aid Society of San Mateo
•  Legal Services of Greater Miami
•  London Legal Support Trust
•  PILnet
•  Pro Bono Net
•  Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
 
 
Promoting diversity in the legal profession

We are proud to support the following organizations and scholarship programs that promote diversity in the legal profession:

•  ABA Fund for Justice & Education
•  Asian American Law Fund
•  Catalyst, Inc.
•  Center for Work-Life Policy
•  Lambda Legal
•  Minority Corporate Counsel Association
•  National Asian Pacific Bar Association Law Foundation
•  National Association of Women Lawyers
•  National Association of Women Judges
•  University of Miami scholarships for minority students

 
 
Read about our green initiative >>