Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic

As COVID-19 continues to spread, our people around the world are helping our clients and our communities navigate this unprecedented crisis and the challenges it is creating. Many of our pro bono clients, both individuals and organizations, are especially vulnerable in these difficult times. Our people have stepped up to assist those in need, including:

- Creating a Nonprofit COVID-19 Legal Resources Hub with information for not-for-profits threatened by this crisis.
- Working to help stop rampant fraud in response to the current demand for protective equipment for health care providers outside of China, in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce and other U.S. law firms in China.
- Sharing an analysis of force majeure in relation to the current pandemic and its impact on companies via a digital lecture to more than 100,000 start-up founders and executive officers in China.
- Built a new support system for small businesses in partnership with Bet Tzedek. To date, we have hosted a series of webinars providing free legal advice for small and minority-owned businesses and provided hundreds of hours of pro bono assistance.
- Helping Sanctuary For Families and its clients, victims of domestic violence, by reaching out to our individual clients and connecting them with necessary social services.
- Helping Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) navigate complex legal issues and operational challenges, including how it can meet its legal obligations while protecting the health and safety of its staff and the unaccompanied children it represents.
- Assisting Just for Kids Law, a leading UK charity, with its response to a COVID-19 bill recently passed in the UK that includes sweeping police powers that make at-risk children particularly vulnerable.
- Expanding our assistance to Good Counsel, which provides services to social enterprises, including  crafting loan agreements to allow Good Counsel to offer no-interest emergency loans to social enterprises.
- Deepening our relationship with the Aspen Institute, including advising its Fellows who are pausing their efforts to launch social ventures so they can mobilize their platforms, resources, and networks to help respond to the pandemic.