November 13, 2023
Willkie’s London Office celebrated Pro Bono Week UK with an event on Nov. 9 highlighting the firm’s work with the Green Tech Legal Collaborative (GTLC), which provides pro bono legal and compliance support for Greentech start-ups from Imperial College’s Enterprise Lab in the early stages of their development. Willkie, along with longstanding client Bloomberg L.P. and Ropes & Gray, were founding partners in establishing the GTLC, which is now in its third year of operation.
The aim of the program is to help speed up the delivery to market of new ideas and technology that could have a positive impact on issues such as climate change and protection of the environment. GTLC currently supports 18 start-ups with support from an increasing panel of law firms. Volunteers are matched to participating start-ups according to their legal need – ranging from corporate governance to fundraising to IP protection.
The start-ups supported by the program focus on a wide range of climate and/or sustainability related solutions, including but not limited to developing more efficient forms of clean energy generation; capturing micro-plastics created by tire wear on vehicles; creating reef structures for vulnerable coast-lines out of ashes produced by cremation; or using micro-organisms and mechanical design to automatically separate food waste from other waste and utilizing the byproduct for energy generation.
This year, fourteen Willkie attorneys and other employees are participating in the program. Some examples of the work our attorneys have contributed on the program includes advice on company secretarial issues, corporate governance, commercial contracts, tax, fundraising, and dispute resolution.