Sustainable Development

• Economic restoration in Liberia has been crucial following the country’s long civil war. Through the International Senior Lawyers Project (ISLP), we worked with other lawyers and experts to assist President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and her government in reviewing and renegotiating long-term mining and agricultural concession agreements. In 2009 we focused on the largest new investments in these sectors, which are expected to increase economic and social returns to the government substantially. We have also assisted on tax and investment policies, helped to establish a general counsel’s office at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and advised on proposed legislation and regulation governing pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
  
  
• We work in partnership with BMW’s Eberhard von Kuenheim Foundation and Boston Consulting on an innovative and entrepreneurial program, Joblinge, set up to help school-weary young Germans enter the job market. We have undertaken the commercial legal work to establish the project, which provides vocational training and aims to reduce youth unemployment in Germany. 
  
  
• We are the global advisors to Youth Business International, a global non-profit network that helps young people start their own businesses. Our strategic relationship includes advising on investment and corporate issues, and on the delivery of advice and training.
  
  
• We operate an international initiative advising entrepreneurs who use their drive and creativity to achieve social change. Our worldwide offices have provided strategic legal advice on issues relating to corporate structure, property, finance, and employment. Clients include Blue Ventures founders Al Harris and Richard Nimmo, who have established marine conservation areas in the Indian Ocean to protect coral reefs, and Ben Ramsden, who established a fair-trade retail business in association with rural Indian farmers.