DLA Piper signs global partnership with UNHCR

DLA Piper has signed a new global alliance with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to collaborate in the development of innovative responses to global refugee crises, improve the integration of refugees in host societies and defend profound system change. Over the next three years, DLA Piper will offer pro bono support valued at more than $3.7 million to contribute financially to the agency’s programs. The alliance has been developed in collaboration with the organization “UK for UNHCR”, responsible for developing humanitarian cooperation programs with British companies to help refugees.

DLA Piper and UNHCR have already had a collaborative relationship for 10 years. In this time period, the firm has provided more than 8,500 hours of pro bono legal support valued at more than $3 million. This new phase of the alliance will focus on the joint development of innovative responses to refugee crises, including financial models and investments that have real impact, among other topics of interest.

In Madrid, along with many other offices, DLA Piper participates in the Know Your Rights program, moving from the presidential to the hybrid format during the pandemic, to offer, free of charge, refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in Spain theoretical-practical training in quality on different legal issues (labour law, real estate, entrepreneurship, education, access to health, etc.).

According to UNHCR figures, there are currently more than 100 million people in the world who have been forced to flee their homes. The number of displaced people has been increasing every year in the last decade and has currently reached its highest number since records have been kept. These unprecedented levels of displacement represent a global humanitarian emergency. The impact is especially significant among children, who represent 30% of the world’s population, but 42% of displaced people worldwide.

DLA Piper has a longstanding commitment to protecting the rights of refugees, with special attention to the most vulnerable groups such as women, children and people belonging to the LGBT+ community. In the last ten years, the office has worked on the causes and consequences of displacement, offering legal recognition to these people and supporting their social inclusion. This partnership with UNHCR is an extension of this work and DLA Piper’s commitment to protecting the rights of displaced people.

For José María Gil-Robles (pictured left), Partner in charge of Commercial at DLA Piper Spain and President of the Spanish Committee of ACNUR, this alliance is especially important at the present time, with the crisis of refugees from Ukraine. Legal protection is vital when people put their lives at risk and face extreme situations. And with this agreement we can expand our work to protect the rights of refugees around the world.”

Paz de la Iglesia (pictured right), partner responsible for pro bono in Spain, highlights that “at DLA Piper Spain we will continue with our commitment to pro bono work, as evidenced by the more than 1,900 hours of pro bono matters dedicated by the lawyers of our firm in Madrid last year”.