The Global Network for Public Interest Law (Pilnet) held its latest Eurasian Pro Bono Week from June 2 to 4. The event, which began in 2024, draws on the experience of Pilnet’s European Pro Bono Week and offers a program tailored to the region’s specific characteristics. As we previously announced, KKMP Partner Anna Maksimenko and KKMP Counsel Ekaterina Sharapova spoke at the session “Pro Bono for Civil Society: Building Cooperation Between Civil Society Organizations and Law Firms in Eurasia,” which took place on June 3.
Together with colleagues from other regional and international law firms, we discussed the culture of pro bono work within law firms and the importance of pro bono consulting for the work of lawyers in general.
The speakers shared information about the pro bono areas they are developing; in particular, Anna Maksimenko discussed the role pro bono work plays in KKMP’s activities and the three key areas of the “KKMP Without Borders” strategy. The topic of the criteria law firms use to select pro bono requests generated significant interest among attendees from charitable organizations. We heard about various approaches—ranging from standard compliance checks to holding a competition within a firm’s specific pro bono budget. In response to a question from participants representing charitable organizations, our colleagues provided a detailed explanation of how conflicts of interest are addressed in pro bono work.
At the end of the meeting, Ekaterina Sharapova shared details about the work the KKMP team has been doing with the “Light in Your Hands” Charitable Foundation on the “Course of Goodness” project to establish a center of excellence for early diagnosis and fetal surgery in the Far East, which we’ve discussed in previous posts.
Results of Eurasian Pro Bono Week 2026
