Environmental
Willkie offers pro bono legal assistance to various organizations promoting or facilitating sustainable practices. Our legal work ranges from data privacy to asset management to intellectual property and more.
Willkie clients include Fashion Makes Change (a program of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors), which works to advance the sustainability of the global fashion industry’s supply chain, including developing key sustainability metrics and funding empowerment and education programs for women workers; the Jane Goodall Institute, a non-profit focused on protecting great ape habitats and expanding Jane Goodall’s legacy of conservation; Renewable Energy Alliance Houston, an organization that facilitates Houston’s clean energy development by connecting, attracting and promoting clean energy leaders and innovators; and Zebo (ZeroWorks LLC), a small business in Austin, TX, delivering sustainable office supplies nationwide and helping offices of all sizes go zero-waste.
Willkie is a founding partner of the Green Tech Legal Collaborative alongside Bloomberg L.P. and another law firm. This program offers pro bono legal support to tech startups from Imperial College London’s Enterprise Lab that are focused on climate action and sustainability. Since the program’s inception in 2021, the Collaborative has helped over 20 startups to navigate a wide range of complex legal and compliance challenges, from corporate governance to IP protection.
Affiliations, Alliances and Awards
Willkie and its partners also donate their time to other initiatives supporting environmental sustainability, including:
- Shortlisted for 2025 Pro Bono Initiative of The Year by The Lawyer, which recognizes Willkie’s outstanding commitment to, and impact of, environmental pro bono legal services in partnership with the Green Tech Legal Collaborative.
- Finalist for The National Law Journal 2024 Community Impact Leaders Award, which recognizes Willkie’s sustainability commitment, community foundations, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and landmark pro bono cases from the last year.
- Winning “Environment & Sustainability: Outstanding Firm” at Chambers USA Awards 2024.
- Willkie contributed substantial pro bono resources to the Green Tech Legal Collaborative, which was named "ESG Programme of the Year" award at the Legal Business Awards in 2024.
- Willkie’s New York headquarters named Green Office Challenge Winner by CommonWealth Partners 2024.
- Shortlisted for “Environmental and Sustainability: Outstanding Firm” at Chambers USA Awards 2023.
- Winning in the “Most Effective Pro Bono Partnership” category for the LawWorks 2023 UK Pro Bono Awards in recognition of Willkie’s partnership with Imperial College/Bloomberg Cleantech Accelerator Programme.
- Participating in the Law Firm Anti-Racism Alliance’s Environmental Justice Working Group, which focuses on removing racial barriers that impact environmental justice.
- Actively engaging in the Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy, a non-profit focused on developing law and policies to protect communities and nature from environmental threats.
- Working with the Futures Industry Association Climate Risk Committee and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee to leverage the power of markets and private innovation to build a more environmentally sustainable global financial system and economy.
- Partnering with Stanford Lawyers for a Sustainable Economy, a law firm-led effort facilitated by Stanford Law School and Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy to provide legal services to nonprofits and startups focused on environmental sustainability in partnership.
- Working with Carbon Disclosure Project, a nonprofit that provides environmental reporting on investors, corporations and cities.
- Participating member of the Legal Sustainability Alliance.
- Authoring U.S. Chapter of the Legal 500 Renewable Energy Guide.