www.newperimeter.com

www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

New Perimeter, a nonprofit affiliate of DLA Piper dedicated exclusively to international pro bono work, opens new horizons for pro bono efforts by major law firms. Launched by the firm in January 2005, New Perimeter is the first initiative of its kind among U.S. firms and is designed to engage attorneys and paralegals in pro bono work all over the globe. Teams from across the firm provide legal support for projects of global concern, including health care, hunger, housing, economic development, law reform, and human rights. The firm dedicated over 11,500 hours of billable time to five New Perimeter projects in 2005. Read more about New Perimeter in this article by Sheldon Krantz and Susan Zentay.

The current New Perimeter projects underway are:

• Addis Ababa Law School – DLA Piper and Northwestern University’s School of Law have partnered with Addis Ababa University, it’s law faculty and the Ethiopian government to address Addis Ababa Law School’s most critical needs: curriculum, research resources, and professional development. Starting in the Spring 2008 semester, DLA Piper attorneys will teach select courses to LLM students during this initial phase of the project. Click here to learn more about the Addis Ababa Law School project.
  
  
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – New Perimeter supports The Global Fund's efforts to fight fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.  The New Perimeter team crafted a model for an Office of Inspector General (OIG) that was approved by the Global Fund Board in April 2005 and subsequently developed a detailed implementation strategy and action plan. Attorneys presented the strategy and action plan to the board committee in early July and worked with the committee as it searched for an Inspector General and developed the OIG. The team also negotiated the delegation of authorities from the World Health Organization, the umbrella organization for The Global Fund, to the Office of Inspector General so that the office can operate independently and effectively. Team members also conducted site visits to China and Kenya to fully understand the implementation and oversight issues facing the Global Fund. In 2006, the New Perimeter team has continued to assist the new Inspector General in its investigation of alleged improprieties by grantees and with other issues related to the establishment and operation of the new OIG.
  
  New Perimeter also supported the Global Fund Secretariat, having seconded an associate to the legal team for four months to assist with reviewing grant agreement and investigating grant compliance. The associate also worked on organizing the Global Fund’s new RED campaign through which major corporations donate a percentage of profits from retail sales to the Global Fund. Finally, New Perimeter is assisting the Global Fund with compliance issues connected to a $500 million donation by the Gates Foundation.
  
  
  
  

• Kosovo Law Reform Project – At the request of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Department of Justice, New Perimeter lawyers assisted in drafting a Law on Courts and Law on Prosecution for Kosovo in cooperation with local advisory groups. The advisory groups are composed of top-level representatives of the Kosovo courts, assembly, office of the prime minister, private lawyers, prosecutors, and academics. Observers from the UN, USAID, US State Department, Council of Europe, National Center for State Courts, other NGOs, and DLA Piper also participated in advisory group meetings. New Perimeter lawyers, with the assistance of European expertise from within our firm and the Council of Europe, developed proposed legislation and interim UN Regulations after lengthy meetings in Pristina with the advisory groups and representatives from various international organizations. Prior to drafting, New Perimeter lawyers presented policy options to allow Kosovars to create legal systems that were consistent both with European standards and Kosovo’s unique needs. It is anticipated that these two laws will be presented to the Kosovo Assembly and to UNMIK for enactment soon. Attorneys also drafted the first Kosovo antitrust law to criminalize collusion and corruption in the bidding process for privatizing state-owned enterprises.
  
  In addition, New Perimeter is assisting the Kosovo Ministry of Justice (MOJ) over the next one to two years at the request of USAID. The team is providing mentoring, training, and technical assistance to the MOJ attorneys. New Perimeter will contribute to the MOJ’s development and implementation of appropriate policies, rules, and regulations that are required for the MOJ to exercise its new authorities under the Law on Prosecution and draft UNMIK regulation to establish the Prosecutorial Council of Kosovo. Training sessions on legislative drafting took place in October and December 2006. To support these efforts, an associate was resident in Pristina for three months.

• The Southern Africa Litigation Centre  – The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), a joint project of the International Bar Association, Open Society Institute of South Africa, and New Perimeter, celebrated its formal launch on June 20, 2006 in Johannesburg, South Africa. SALC will be advancing human rights litigation in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe by training attorneys and judges in the law and supporting attorneys in specific cases. New Perimeter supports the human rights litigation through topical research. DLA Piper lawyers advised on the creation of an online law and international human rights library; and helped lawyers involved in human rights litigation on a variety of matters including drafting a comprehensive report on human rights violations.  Additionally, a large group in the London office drafted a nuts-and-bolts litigation manual that is available on SALC’s website and is distributed in the region on CD.
   
  New Perimeter established a secondment program in 2006. DLA Piper lawyers have been spending time in Johannesburg on a rotating basis.

Read the Litigation Manual »                                               

Read the SALC Brochure »        

African Millennium Cities – In collaboration with the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the Columbia University Program on International Investment, and the UN Millennium Project, the African Millennium Cities Initiative focuses on the possibilities for sustainable development and achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals in key urban centers of some of the world’s most impoverished countries. The project initially focuses on the legal, regulatory, and practical impediments to foreign direct investment in Blantyre, Malawi and Kumasi, Ghana. The team will produce by the end of the year a study for the benefit of government officials and potential investors analyzing the investment regulatory framework as it is on the books and as it works in reality, including relevant provincial and municipal variations. The study will also make recommendations for improving the framework for investment.

Climate Change Project - The newest New Perimeter project aims to partner with the International Small Tree Planting Program, a reforestation project in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. New Perimeter will provide legal assistance in creating and protecting the rights of subsistence farmers in developing efficient market relationships with global customers. To benefit both the farmers and the industries or countries that purchase, New Perimeter lawyers will evaluate the use and market for carbon sequestration credits; research land tenure issues; create the legal mechanisms for the subsistence farmers to enter into contracts and transact the sale of these credits; and advise on inheritance and ownership rights for women.



Past New Perimeter Projects

The following two projects recently concluded their status as New Perimeter Initiatives.  DLA Piper continues to work with both of these clients through our pro bono program. 

• Micro-lending - DLA Piper is assisting CHF International with its micro-lending program.  The program stimulates entrepreneurial activity in developing countries by providing very small loans to small businesses to help them with start-up or expansion costs or to individuals for housing/home improvement.  As part of this project, the team explored ways to create sustainable funding options for the continuation and expansion of CHF's micro-lending programs.  After examining the legal structures of CHF's eleven micro-lending institutions, New Perimeter helped CHF create a stand-alone entity to be controlled by CHF.  This allows CHF to consolidate its microfinance operations.  Having creating the new entity, attorneys are in the process, in conjunction with local counsel as necessary, of transferring each of the local, in-country, operations to the new entity.  The team is also crafting a management services agreement between CHF and the new subsidiary.  CHF hopes these structural changes will allow it to attract investors interested in more socially conscious investments with attendant market returns. 
  
• Global FoodBanking Network - New Perimeter lawyers created the Global FoodBanking Network (GFN).  The goal of GFN is to end world hunger, using food banking, which is a sustainable method for fighting hunger.  GFN's approach is to support food banking where it exists and create it where it does not.  Early members of GFN include food bank networks and associations in Canada, the US, Mexico, Argentina, and the UK.  There are also member food banks in Japan, Guatemala, and Colombia.  In addition, GFN is in discussions with various groups across Europe.  GFN has recently piloted a project in Israel, and currently has additional pilot projects underway to create new food bank networks in Ghana, South Africa, Turkey, and India.  DLA Piper lawyers continue to provide corporate structuring advice, tax advice, and transactional advice, specifically with respect to the negotiation of contracts and supply agreements relating to procurement, transportation, storage and distribution of food.