GL BAL GOOD
A decade of collective impact
Ten years ago, Amazon formally established our pro bono program. The program gives our legal and public policy professionals throughout the world a wide variety of opportunities to use their skills to help individuals and organizations that cannot otherwise afford access to justice. For years, these efforts happened quietly around the world. Three years ago, we began capturing and sharing the incredible stories and experiences from our teams serving the communities where we live and work. The stories in this report reflect select pro bono highlights from October 2023 to October 2024, unless otherwise indicated.
The program has expanded over the last decade with more than 2,200 legal and public policy professionals devoting more than 65,000 hours of pro bono service all over the world. We have taken on a wide variety of cases, projects, and matters that our employees are passionate about, including counseling families experiencing homelessness, safeguarding voting rights, and championing the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. While we’ve increased the size and impact of the program, our original mission — to help those who need it most — remains unchanged.
Why this anniversary is the most important of my career (so far)
David Zapolsky
Senior Vice President
Global Public Policy & General Counsel
When I look back on my 35-year career in law, there is one case from early on that still stands out as one of the highlights.
Shortly after moving to Seattle in the 1990s, I took on a complex pro bono class action representing a group of families facing eviction from an apartment building in Renton, Washington. The landlord wanted to stop accepting Section 8 vouchers as rent. Section 8 vouchers, also known as Housing Choice Vouchers, are a federal program that helps low-income households, seniors, and people with disabilities pay rent. During our investigation, we found the building had received public financing when it was built, and there was an obligation in the building’s bond covenant requiring the landlord not to discriminate based on the receipt of public assistance. We won the case and recovered $250,000 to help the families. That case was deeply rewarding for me as it reinforced the power and profound impact of serving the public through pro bono legal representation, which is part of what attracted me to law school in the first place.
I strongly believe pro bono service is an obligation we all have as legal professionals to provide access to justice and equal opportunity for all. So when I became general counsel at Amazon, one of my top priorities was to build a lasting, scalable pro bono program from the ground up. This year, that program turns 10 years old, and so far more than 2,200 of us have collectively volunteered more than 65,000 hours of pro bono service all over the world.
This year will mark my 25th anniversary at Amazon. But a much more important milestone for me is seeing our pro bono program turn 10. While we have a lot more we can and will do, when people ask me what I am proudest of in my career, I always talk about our pro bono program.
We started this program with a relentless determination to provide access to justice for everyone. And 10 years later, the need is greater than ever. Pro bono work makes us better professionals. It brings us closer to our communities. And as you’ll see in this report, it gives us the occasional opportunity to effect powerful change in someone’s life. I’m extraordinarily proud of the difference our teams have made, but our objective is far from finished. We’re committed and looking forward to continuing this important work for decades to come.
David Zapolsky
Contents
RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO
Amazon’s global pro bono program has grown over the past decade to having now surpassed 65,000 cumulative volunteer hours, with participation from more than 2,200 lawyers and legal professionals working in 23 countries. This growth positions Amazon to reach even more people, communities, and causes over the next 10 years — and well beyond.
Volunteer Hours
CUMULATIVE TOTAL, BY YEAR
RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO
10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
65,000+
Volunteers from Across the Globe
RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO
CHINA
EGYPT
FRANCE
GERMANY
INDIA AUSTRALIA
LUXEMBOURG
NETHERLANDS
SOUTH KOREA
SPAIN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
POLAND
SINGAPORE
UNITED KINGDOM
UNITED STATES
MEXICO
Countries Impacted by Our Work
RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO
ANGOLA | AFGHANISTAN | AUSTRALIA | AUSTRIA
BAHRAIN | BARBADOS | BELARUS | BELGIUM
BENIN | BOLIVIA | BRAZIL | BULGARIA
BURKINA FASO | BURUNDI | CAMEROON
CANADA | CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
CHAD | CHINA | CROATIA | CZECH REPUBLIC
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO | DENMARK
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | EGYPT | EL SALVADOR
FIJI | FINLAND | FRANCE | GEORGIA | GERMANY
GREECE | GUINEA | GUYANA | HUNGARY | INDIA
INDONESIA | IRELAND | ISRAEL | ITALY
IVORY COAST | JAPAN | JORDAN | KAZAKHSTAN
KYRGYZSTAN | LUXEMBOURG | MADAGASCAR
MALAYSIA | MALDIVES | MALI | MEXICO
MOROCCO | NETHERLANDS | NIGER | NIGERIA
NORWAY | PAKISTAN | PHILIPPINES | POLAND
PORTUGAL | ROMANIA | RUSSIA | RWANDA
SENEGAL | SERBIA | SINGAPORE | SLOVAKIA
SOMALIA | SOUTH AFRICA | SPAIN | SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND | THAILAND | TOGO | TURKEY
UGANDA | UKRAINE | UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM | UNITED STATES
Pro Bono Practice Areas
RAISING THE BAR IN PRO BONO
ADOPTIONS
ANTI-DISCRIMINATION
CHILD PROTECTION
CIVIL RIGHTS
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
CORPORATE LAW & CONTRACTS
CRIMINAL RECORD EXPUNGEMENTS
DEBTORS’ RIGHTS
ELDER RIGHTS
ENTERTAINMENT LAW
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
ESTATE PLANNING
EXONERATIONS
HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS
IMMIGRATION, ASYLUM & REFUFGEE SUPPORT
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY & LICENSING
LGBTQIA+ RIGHTS
STUDENT MENTORSHIP
PRISONERS’ RIGHTS
RIGHT TO LEGAL COUNSEL
RIGHTS FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVORS
RIGHTS FOR SEXUAL ABUSE SURVIVORS
RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
TAX LAW
VETERANS’ RIGHTS
VOTING RIGHTS
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Housing and Homelessness
Amazon is persistent in finding a solution for families seeking permanent housing
In the Seattle area, where rents are high and vacancies are low, more families experience homelessness than emergency shelter beds are available to keep them safe. HOUSING
To help families transition more rapidly to permanent housing and provide a level of relief to the region’s strained homelessness response system, Amazon has entered into a partnership to provide pro bono legal counsel to immigrant and migrant families that are living in shelters and face complex challenges in pursuing their goal of long-term housing security.
“This type of work cannot be done alone; it takes all of us,” said Dominique Alex, CEO at Mary’s Place , which operates emergency family shelters in King County, Washington, that provide temporary housing in conjunction with services designed to help families obtain permanent housing quickly. “The continued commitment to innovate and show up for our neighbors has been critical to create pathways to housing stability for the families we are serving.”
All guests of Mary’s Place shelters confront an assortment of barriers to permanent housing, but a number of immigrant and migrant families face unique challenges — including their legal ability to earn the steady income necessary to pay rent in a housing market that is one of the most expensive in North America.
Jason Gortney, chief program & innovation officer at Mary’s Place, said the nonprofit came to realize that it lacked necessary knowledge in the complicated federal legal system around asylum applications, work permits, and other aspects of immigration law — and therefore was stymied in its mission to provide holistic housing support to all of its guests.
“That’s when we asked Amazon, ‘Can you help us with this?’” Gortney recalled. HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Taking a creative approach
The relationship between Amazon and Mary’s Place runs deep. The largest Mary’s Place family shelter operates within an Amazon building in downtown Seattle, and Amazon lawyers and legal professionals have provided a variety of pro bono legal services to Mary’s Place guests since 2018.
Finding a solution to meet the legal services needs of Mary’s Place guests who are immigrants and migrants has been a challenge. Like Mary’s Place staff, Amazon’s legal team lacks expertise in all of the intricacies of immigration law. But in true pro bono spirit, the team has demonstrated a commitment to learn.
Starting in 2023, Amazon and Mary’s Place began discussing how they could team up to help the immigrant and migrant populations find a path to permanent housing. A committee formed to help frame a solution.
“For a long time, I felt like I was screaming into a void and letting down Mary’s Place and its guests because I knew how important of an issue this was, but it was hard to see a solution to it,” said Yousri Omar , an associate general counsel in Seattle.
No doubt, the problem loomed large. While a solution warranted thinking big, it also required being creative. The project scope eventually settled on the predicate for securing permanent housing — a steady income. To achieve that, the Mary’s Place guests need a federal permit for work authorization, which for asylum seekers can be obtained only if their asylum applications are in good standing.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
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One of the things we had to understand and come to terms with is that our objective in pro bono is to assist organizations in support of their goals, which in the case of Mary’s Place is to help families find stable housing.
Yousri Omar, Associate General Counsel
The new partnership takes shape
Amazon collaborated with law firm pro bono partners K&L Gates , Perkins Coie , Fenwick & West , and Davis Wright Tremaine to structure a pro bono partnership with Co-Counsel NYC , a nonprofit with expertise in addressing similar access to justice barriers for immigrant families.
“We had numerous conversations with Mary’s Place staff who do the intakes with families and who actively have listened to what they are asking for,” said Terry Lawson, co-founder and coexecutive director of Co-Counsel. “The needs expressed by the families match our model that we had been working on with other community organizations.”
The Amazon legal team then pulled in Amazon Community Impact , the company’s charitable arm that leverages internal talent and resources to strengthen communities where Amazon employees live and work. That financial support was vital in bringing CoCounsel on board for training, consultation, and reinforcement.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
From July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, more than 150 lawyers and legal professionals from Amazon provided over 630 hours of pro bono assistance to Mary’s Place — to individuals and the organization. The leadership team managing the legal team’s partnership with Mary’s Place partnership includes: Omar; Mike Williams , associate general counsel; Joseph Filloy , associate general counsel; Erin O’Brien , program manager; and Lindsey Casey , program development lead. In addition, Michael Freedman , senior corporate counsel, Ellie Alvarez , legal assistant, and Maria Gregg , associate contracts manager, devoted time and energy to an immigration working group focused on the new endeavor.
In early fall, Co-Counsel began training Mary’s Place staff, Amazon legal team members, and Amazon pro bono partners who wish to be part of the solution. “We are providing them with the substantive law so they are not just being form fillers, but really understand the important role they are playing in this broader system,” Lawson said.
In October, during Amazon’s Pro Bono Week (an annual global event promoting and celebrating the company’s pro bono activities), the legal team launched the first of what it hopes will be ongoing in-pers on legal clinics for Mary’s Place guests that focus expressly on resolving issues around asylum applications, federal work permits, and other barriers related to immigration status that prevent or prolong transitions to permanent housing. Co-Counsel also plans to be available to consult on a day-to-day basis with Mary’s Place staff — and even work directly with guests to answer their individual questions and help them prepare for meetings with shelter staff and the legal clinics.
The hope is that those served through this pro bono partnership will be able to obtain stable housing more quickly for their families, thereby freeing up shelter space at Mary’s Place and increasing its capacity to serve even more Seattle-area families experiencing a housing crisis.
“We’re excited and grateful, and looking forward to what’s ahead,” said Alex, the Mary’s Place CEO. “This is yet another example of Amazon’s generosity and continued commitment to our mission — and being part of the solution.”
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At Amazon, we recognize that for many, the path to permanent housing is a complex and trying journey. In addition to shelter itself, we want to help Mary’s Place provide access to resources, including legal counsel, so that all families seeking permanent housing have a clearer path forward. This means ensuring that members of our own legal team understand a complex legal system — and can help those served by Mary’s Place navigate it.
Alice Shobe , Global Director, Amazon Community Impact
Innovative Partnerships
Refugees provided legal counsel to help them thrive in France
Amazon has a proud history of providing pro bono legal services to refugees, working together with nonprofits, NGOs, and private law firms to improve the lives of displaced people rebounding from traumas that often include family separation, war, and other threats of violence.
In 2024, for the first time ever, Amazon attorneys delivered those legal services to refugees while all were in the same room. Face to face. Heart to heart.
The moment also marked the first time Amazon lawyers provided refugee assistance in conjunction with Amazon’s Public Policy team — a significant step that extends the reach and expands the impact of Amazon pro bono by inviting the participation of internal partners from outside the legal team.
The innovative partnership, delivered through a four-day training session in May, educated 20 refugees from eight countries on their rights in their newly adopted country of France, helping them make a more seamless transition and build successful lives in their new home. The refugees were from Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, and Ukraine. Various NGOs identified the participants for the training based on their circumstances and intense desire to learn.
When Amazon’s Global Public Policy team came under David Zapolsky, who also leads the Amazon legal team as general counsel, having the two groups work together to enhance pro bono initiatives simply made sense.
“We are different sides of the same coin,” said Najib Saïl , senior corporate counsel in Paris who leads Amazon’s pro bono efforts throughout Europe. “We are stronger when we work with one another. We can offer Public Policy our expertise on a number of legal topics, and Public Policy can help us understand how policymakers think and where they might land.”
Working together on the Know Your Rights initiative, a legal education program that global law firm DLA Piper designed to assist refugees and asylum seekers, provided a perfect opportunity to demonstrate how an inspired collaborative model can enhance positive results. “The Know Your Rights initiative exemplifies Amazon’s global commitment to serve those in need while working alongside others also willing to support a cause,” Saïl said.
The in-person training proved to be interactive, with refugees posing pointed questions specific to their current situations in life. They brought different perspectives to the discussion, sharing information on how the law worked in their home country and wondering if it was similar in France.
“The dedication of Amazon lawyers has enhanced the program’s impact, and the practical and pivotal information they share with refugees always makes a difference,” said Özgür Kahale, DLA Piper’s pro bono director in Europe. “Together, we are changing lives by empowering more individuals with the knowledge to stand up for their rights, highlighting the extraordinary power of collaboration in driving positive change.”
I was not fully aware of our rights here, particularly health rights, and the teachers gave us lots of valuable information on this. I also learned about the criteria for accessing social housing and the different types of housing available. This knowledge has been incredibly helpful in understanding my rights in France, and I truly appreciated the program.
Fahima , a refugee from Afghanistan
Claire Scharwatt , head of public policy, sustainability, and Kuiper, France, was thrilled to accept the pro bono invitation extended to her and her colleagues. “Having worked many years on the topic of migration and refugees, it was particularly important for me to participate in this pro bono mission,” said Scharwatt, who is not a lawyer, having studied political science and engineering in college.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect but I came in with an open mind. My role was to deliver the opening of the course and share general concepts about the legal system in France. Thanks to the support we got from the legal team and DLA Piper, contributing to this pro bono mission was pretty straightforward.”
I have significantly increased my understanding of social rights, labor law, health law, and how to access French courts and the legal system. As a refugee, having access to these resources is crucial for integration. Thank you.
Oryna , a refugee from Ukraine
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It has been such a great experience for two main reasons. The first, I have been able to learn more about rights and responsibilities as a resident in France, like how I can make my employees respect my rights … and my responsibilities (as an employer).
Secondly, the people I have met here. There are many great people who have helped me discover many things I did not know.
, a refugee from Colombia
Sebastian
Learn about Amazon’s pro bono initiatives serving refugees from Afghanistan (Beyond Borders, page 7) and Ukraine (We Serve, page 19).
Voting Rights
Amazon tapped to assist a key group of voters on Election Day in the U.S.
Where is my polling place? Will my vote still count if I ripped my paper ballot by mistake? What recourse do I have after being told I’m not allowed to vote?
These are the kinds of simple but crucial questions Amazon Legal team members fielded during the 2020 and 2022 U.S. national elections while volunteering for a nonpartisan election protection hotline, organized through the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL). In the November 2024 election, Amazon once again will staff the hotline, helping voters resolve, in real time, any issues that could inhibit them from exercising their right to vote.
VOTING RIGHTS
The LCCRUL election protection hotline relies on pro bono volunteers from across the U.S. to staff a series of virtual contact centers. For most of the year, calls are handled through a national contact center that fields questions from voters across the country, but on Election Day, calls are routed to one of several centers, each of which covers a specific state or a cluster of states.
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We have had a great partnership with LCCRUL since we began this effort in 2020, and engaged with LCCRUL starting late last year to talk about how we could be most helpful during the 2024 election cycle. It’s a real show of trust that we have been given a state that historically has been so heavily contested. I have been a lead since our first effort in 2020, and we have always had to split our attention among multiple states rather than focusing on one. We are now looking forward to the opportunity to develop a partnership with legal leaders in Arizona, get smarter about its election laws, and ultimately help voters.
Mayank Prasad , Senior Corporate Counsel, AWS
VOTING
RIGHTS
This year, Amazon Legal is taking on an especially big assignment — a product of trust earned in past years — to staff a contact center for one state, Arizona, where the outcome of the 2024 presidential election conceivably could hang in the balance.
“Since Amazon began hosting an election protection contact center in 2020, the legal department has done an incredible job of recruiting volunteers and leadership, and managing the contact center according to plan every major election year,” said Misty Jones, LCCRUL election protection infrastructure manager. “When we are planning law firm assignments, there are some states where it makes sense to keep the calls confined to one contact center, but the challenge is finding a law firm or corporate legal department that can manage the expected call volume.
“Amazon volunteers have shown repeatedly that they are up to the challenge.”
The LCCRUL hotline logged nearly 250,000 calls during the 2020 election cycle when many voters were casting ballots by mail for the first time due to pandemic restrictions. On Election Day that year, Amazon was the first in-house legal department to fully staff and operate a hotline contact center, taking voter calls that originated from 15 states.
Amazon lawyers and legal professionals gained even more experience with the hotline during the 2022 federal midterm elections — having been assigned three states with tight U.S. senatorial races. The work proved quite crucial as Amazon volunteers received a call that evening from a voter who reported that an in-person polling place was shutting down early and not allowing people already in line to vote, which violated that state’s election rules. The Amazon volunteer told the caller to tell the others to remain in the line. Amazon’s escalation of the call ultimately led to those 300 people being able to vote.
Calls come from people on both sides of the political aisle and we get questions of all types. While some calls are fun — I once dictated turn-by-turn directions to a voter to get him to his polling location before it closed — many have educated me on the obstacles and frustrations faced by voters across the country. Having the opportunity to directly address those challenges has been gratifying, and seeing it amplified by our team is incredible.
Maureen Quigley, Senior Corporate Counsel, Amazon Health Services
This year, LCCRUL tapped Amazon legal team members to staff the contact center for Arizona, a hotly contested state that could swing the electoral college, which decides the outcome of the U.S. presidential election based on weighted state-by-state results.
Amazon volunteers not only bring labor to the effort, but also an ability to manage complex issues and escalate them quickly to achieve results — skills adapted from working in the company’s consumer-driven, can-do culture.
“Being assigned Arizona is exciting and really gives us a chance to make a difference,” said Lindsay Blohm, senior corporate counsel for AWS. “Being limited to one state has given us time to dive deep into Arizona election law before Election Day. In prior years when we were covering several states, we had less time to delve into the rules of each individual jurisdiction.”
The amount of energy around this effort at Amazon speaks volumes about the kind of people we have around here. Every election is important and we are going to do our best work no matter what state we are assigned. But being assigned a high-impact state, a swing state, we are going to make sure we do it right.
Rudy Aguilar, Corporate Counsel, AWS
On Election Day 2024, Amazon expects to have close to 70 volunteers answering the phones — many of them hotline firsttimers — working four hours each, spread across three shifts. Each volunteer will have completed at least one hour of training and one four-hour hotline shift in advance of Election Day. Each shift also will have six captains, all of whom will have completed multiple hotline shifts and will be tasked with tracking down answers for callers when the volunteers on the phone are unable to answer a question immediately.
Overseeing all of it will be four leads — Amazon volunteers with 50 hours of hotline experience at a minimum — who expect to work 15 hours straight on Election Day. They include Blohm, Rudy Aguilar, Mayank Prasad, and Maureen Quigley. VOTING RIGHTS
I was living in Europe, working for Amazon, during the 2016 presidential elections. When I moved back to the U.S. in August 2020, I knew I wanted to do my part for the election beyond casting my one vote. So, I worked pro bono as a volunteer for the election protection hotline that November and have been doing it ever since.
Lindsay Blohm , Senior Corporate Counsel, AWS
Mentorship
Mentorship programs cultivate interest and expertise in the law
In places like New Jersey, the United Kingdom, and Brazil, Amazon attorneys have engaged with young people — from high school students to law students to young lawyers — to spark fascination in the study of law and build skills among the next generation of lawyers who can pay forward the selfless and satisfying practice of pro bono.
NEW JERSEY
“You get to see the students improve in their critical thinking and gain more confidence in themselves.”
Audible, an Amazon company, creates several opportunities for members of its legal team to provide pro bono service to the Newark, New Jersey, community where they live and work. In a powerful and uniquely personal initiative, Audible attorneys mentor high school sophomores and juniors one-to-one over the course of an entire school year to help them understand the rights of Americans, analyze legal precedent, and craft and present cogent arguments that they ultimately proffer in oral debate.
The immersion-style constitutional law debate program marks a fresh stage in Audible’s ever-evolving partnership with NJ LEEP, a nonprofit that partners with low-income and first-generation students in the greater Newark area to help them achieve their college and career ambitions. The year-long engagement gives the lawyers a chance to really get to know the NJ LEEP students they mentor:
Sekou Ketia looks forward to pursuing a legal career after he graduates from high school. His parents have encouraged their son to think big. “Doctor or lawyer,” they suggest, not necessarily in that order.
Stephanie Perez is a voracious reader, particularly when it comes to books about history. Her intellectual curiosity has driven her to become quite the dissector of current events, too. Grasping how the law serves to influence the issues of the day, she is thinking about a career as a prosecutor or (like classmate Sekou) working in the medical field. “My main goal is trying to help people directly, and I feel like either of those two fields can help me achieve that goal,” she said.
Maria Guaba once considered herself the shy girl in class. After participating in the debate program, she feels she has gained confidence in herself and her future.
MENTORSHIP | NEW JERSEY
NJ LEEP has operated the constitutional law debate program since 2008, and during the 2023-24 school year, “Audible sent us more mentors — six of them — than any corporate partner or law firm,” said Caryn Tomljanovich, managing director of development for NJ LEEP. “Audible is literally across the street from our office space so we are all invested in — and part of — the same neighborhood. They were there, they showed up, and they were really engaged and responsive with our students.”
One of the two constitutional law cases the students debated during the past academic year centered on the rights of a student expelled from school as a result of making an inappropriate social media post while not on campus. “It came down to a question of what is freedom of speech,” Sekou said. “It took a lot of reading and it wasn’t easy. If I didn’t understand how to write or argue something — or even if I did, if I needed more insight — I could always ask my mentor Jake (Goodman) for help. What I find most interesting is that you can’t just develop your own argument. You have to really look at the other side of it in order to make your own case stronger.”
The enduring partnership with NJ LEEP has been nurtured over the years by Jessica Mauceri, an associate corporate counsel on Audible’s content legal team, who co-chairs Audible’s pro bono efforts with Suemyra Shah, head of content legal affairs. “What makes the constitutional law debate program special for me is that it’s over the course of a full school year,” Mauceri said. “By the end of the year, the students are great at connecting all the dots and applying what they have learned. You see them grow.”
Mauceri mentored Maria, who surprised herself at how much her speaking and social skills had matured since going through the same debate program the previous year as a sophomore. “I can’t even describe how good Jessica was,” Maria said. “She made the cases seem easier than I thought they would be. She was always there for me — really, really helpful.”
In addition to the year-long constitutional law debate and mentoring program, three Audible lawyers lead an annual interactive “Week on the Job” program over the summer in which NJ LEEP students get to experience the nuances, thought processes, challenges, and joys of working in a corporate setting while learning about legal and other careers at Audible. Supported by Audible’s Global Center for Urban Innovation, the program also pulls in employees from other parts of the company, such as marketing, content, and studios.
During the 2023-24 school year, Audible lawyers Lori Landew, Rachel Kiwi, Gavin Pereira , Goodman, and Mauceri participated as mentors, and Danielle Imbemba joined Mauceri in leading the “Week on the Job” program.
UNITED KINGDOM
“A different background can be valuable in making you an effective lawyer.”
Those who come to the study of law through non-traditional routes tend to assume their pathway into the legal profession is a detriment to them achieving success in the field. Jo McKeegan, corporate counsel for Amazon’s content policy legal team in London, strongly disagrees. “I think it puts you at an advantage,” she says.
During an afternoon in March 2024, McKeegan joined a couple dozen other Amazon legal team members from Global Media and Entertainment to provide encouragement and one-on-one advice to about 30 post-graduate law students to help ease their transition into the professional world.
The 30 students, participants in the qLegal program of Queen Mary University of London, all were legal externs for various startup businesses in the United Kingdom. They had entered law school from a variety of backgrounds. Some were about to become attorneys for the first time, while others already were licensed in another jurisdiction. The qLegal program had placed them in long-term externships in a variety of different enterprises around the UK, ranging from a company making artisan ice cream to an organization advocating to improve women’s health. MENTORSHIP | UNITED KINGDOM
Over three hours, students in the qLegal program presented on their externship experiences to the Amazon volunteers, who in turn shared practical ideas for a successful legal career that are not necessarily covered in law school textbooks. Covered topics included how to describe the intricacies of past legal work without breaking confidentialities — or to put it another way, how to balance the competing interests of maintaining professional ethics with making a strong pitch for one’s own competencies, aptitudes, and experiences.
McKeegan organized the event with Aster Abebe , contracts manager for Amazon Music in London, and the London office of Morrison Foerster, which donated the space. “I was really pleased with the turnout,” McKeegan said. “Everybody was incredibly engaged and the feedback was very positive. In fact, the students said they wished the program had been longer.”
Participant feedback “
Initially, I was quite anxious, but after delivering my pitch before the inhouse attorneys from Amazon, I felt an immense sense of joy, confidence, and pride in myself. The event proved to be truly amazing and enriching.
BRAZIL
“We are there to help them, but I feel like we are the ones who get more benefit out of the experience.”
Coletivo Equalizar is a group of eight companies and one law firm doing business in Brazil that have come together in 2024 to encourage law firms and legal departments to address the country’s disproportionately low number of Black lawyers in the profession — and mentor those who recently have broken through the glass ceiling. As a member of the collective, Amazon offers pro bono mentorship opportunities to its small but driven legal team in São Paulo. Luis Nasser, principal legal counsel, stepped up to volunteer.
He became the mentor for a junior counsel working in the legal department of one of the other companies involved in the collective. “Every young lawyer can benefit from having a mentor, especially those underrepresented in the profession,” Nasser said.
While more Black lawyers gradually are entering the legal field in Brazil, few are represented in positions of leadership. Nasser notes that the Equalizar project needs to rely on non-Black mentors, like himself, because of the scarcity of experienced Black lawyers in Brazil. “That’s the problem we are trying to solve,” he said.
Nasser’s discussions with his mentee, a young woman, have focused on her day-to-day concerns related to managing multiple tasks on the job rather than anything specific to being a Black woman navigating Brazil’s legal profession. “It’s been very gratifying for me to share with her my experiences as I was growing my own career,” Nasser said. “I feel like I am able to help her in that regard.”
Nasser and his mentee also participated in a seminar and networking event, promoted by one of the most prestigious law schools in Brazil, that focused on the topic of diversity within the legal profession. “It was a very fruitful conversation they had there, and we both got a lot out of the exchange,” Nasser recalled. “Personally speaking, it’s been a huge experience for me to learn about the challenges Black women face in the legal profession. I’m so very happy to help in any way I can.”
Learn about a previous Amazon pro bono mentorship program that served women law students of color in Brazil (We Serve, page 67).
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What has working on pro bono at Amazon allowed you to do?”
Meet Amazon legal team members from across the globe as we describe the professional and personal rewards of pro bono work.
• Gives us opportunities to get closer to our communities.
• Lets us step outside our normal work flow and do something different.
• Provides us possibilities to create real change in people’s lives.
“ We are grateful Amazon encourages us to take time to give back.
LGBTQIA+ Rights
Amazon helps build the case for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers
Over its history, Amazon Legal’s pro bono program has provided meaningful support for global initiatives that protect LGBTQIA+ adults and youth from persecution and violence.
Amazon Legal entered a different arena of LGBTQIA+ rights in 2024 through a new partnership with Oasis Legal Services , a U.S.-based nonprofit that provides a range of immigration legal services and social services for LGBTQIA+ people, including help in obtaining affirmative asylum in the U.S., avoiding deportation, and finding safety.
LGBTQIA+ people who arrive in the U.S. seeking affirmative asylum must prove that they either have faced or would face extreme violence or persecution in their country of origin as a result of their sexuality, gender identity, or HIV-positive status. A pending asylum application allows them to obtain a work permit and a Social Security number, clearing a path that can result in professional and personal fulfillment.
“ I no longer have to suffer anymore. There is always going to be justice for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart; because of you, I no longer fear.
Jesse , a trans man who survived abuse and conversion therapy in his countries of origin before obtaining asylum in the U.S. through the assistance of Oasis and its volunteers
To help build the cases for asylum seekers, Oasis relies on “country condition reports,” which are large summaries of the laws, regulations, practices, and social and political climates within a country that can make life unbearable for LGBTQIA+ people. Over the past year, Amazon volunteers lent their legal expertise to update condition reports for three countries — two in Asia and one in Africa. The Oasis lawyers present the country condition reports — along with a formal declaration of facts and, often, the results of a psychological evaluation of the asylum seeker to show the effects of the persecution — as evidence to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officer, who makes the ultimate determination of eligibility for asylum status.
In 2024, Amazon volunteers — who teamed with lawyers from Morrison Foerster on this project — came from legal offices all over the globe, including Australia, France, Germany, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. In fact, so many were willing to help — 36 volunteers in all — that the project scope increased from two report updates to three.
“I requested only about 10 volunteers,” recalled Patricia Arrieta Munduate , Amazon corporate counsel in Madrid who leads the pro bono partnership with Oasis. “At first, I was surprised at the overwhelming response. But when you begin to understand that people are suffering from physical violence just because of their sexuality, gender identity, or HIV status — that they don’t have freedom or security and cannot live the lives they want in their own country to the point they are willing to leave everything behind, their homes, their families — well, it really touches everyone’s heart.”
In more than 80 countries, it is a crime or, at the very least, extremely unsafe to be LGBTQIA+ or HIV-positive. Examples of social conditions that can create immediate harm for LGBTQIA+ people may include political speech, clerical declarations, and recently passed laws. Over the past seven years, Oasis has represented asylum seekers from 68 different countries, taking on about 200 new clients a year and working on over 1,000 active cases at any moment.
“Having pro bono partners conduct critical research frees up time and resources for Oasis’ attorneys, effectively increasing their capacity to serve more clients,” said Adam Chang, Oasis executive director. “Further, a single updated country condition report serves multiple clients at once. Attorneys from many different U.S. firms and companies help us, but it’s not every day we get pro bono attorneys situated from all over the world like we have received from Amazon.”
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‘Ya lo pasado, pasado.’ It means, ‘The past is the past.’ It’s like I went through things, really bad things, but now I feel love and feel like I can just ... go on.
Hector, a gay man who at age 16 had his life threatened at gunpoint for falling in love with the son of the mayor in his small town. He gained asylum in the U.S. through Oasis.
As conditions on the ground can change so rapidly for LGBTQIA+ people, regular updates of the country reports prove to be vital supplemental evidence for asylum requesters. “We strive to update country condition reports annually, but depending on what’s happening in a particular country, it’s not unusual for us to update a report more than once a year,” Chang said. “The news churns out so much content every day that we need to rely on others to help us to sift through it all.”
Chang shared that Oasis has a 99% success rate on its affirmative asylum, residency, and citizenship cases. “That shows we’re very good at what we do. But what’s so terrible is that it also shows the extent and level of suffering that our clients have endured and therefore how compelling their cases are.”
Learn about Amazon’s pro bono initiative serving LGBTQIA+ youth in Europe (We Serve, page 53).
Child Protection
Children kept safe in cyberspace
Amazon has pursued a number of innovative, education-based pro bono initiatives over the past decade that have been focused on protecting the safety and well-being of children across the globe. Some have come to the aid of unaccompanied migrant children, while others have helped to prevent child exploitation and abuse. Over the past 12 months, Amazon branched out in this critical area of work with new pro bono programs in China, New York City, and India that address modern-day threats within the online world.
CHINA
Eight members of Amazon’s International Stores legal team in Beijing came together to act out a play for children of rural migrant workers in the Northern China city of Tianjin. The original threeact play features funny characters, but the plot has a serious calling — to teach vulnerable children how to spot and protect themselves against cyberbullies and online fraudsters.
“I wanted to deliver a performance to reflect those underprivileged kids’ real life and problems, and help them to think and change,” said Annick Ding, a compliance specialist and the play’s writer and director.
The CN International Stores legal team has performed short educational plays for kids since 2015. The script of the new play was crafted to acknowledge a new national law that aims to protect minors in cyberspace. A community leader with Evergreen, an NGO and pro bono partner, asked Amazon if future performances could be adapted to focus on the negative aspects of online obsession, and encourage children and their parents to instead leverage the internet as a useful tool.
The team performed the play, which is in Mandarin, for the first time in November 2023 for children taking part in Evergreen’s “Growing Up in the City” community club program. The cohesive plot follows the adventures of A-hua, a student who uses social media to shame a classmate who is the focus of jealousy, and Wang Cai, A-hua’s classmate who is alerted to two common online scams that specifically target minors.
The performance features comedic elements to ensure that the children watch with rapt attention. At strategic moments, the performers pause the play to ask questions, and the children who participate receive Amazon-branded souvenirs. The CN International Stores legal team plans to perform the play again in the future and has shared the script with other Amazon legal teams in China, such as AWS, to spread to more children-serving NGOs.
“We want this play to be our living legacy,” said Shanshan Chen, pro bono lead for CN International Stores and a performer in the play.
NEW YORK CITY
The practice of “sexting” — the sending of sexual text messages that also may include nude or suggestive photos — and the issue of consent carry legal consequences that require blunt dialogue, particularly with youth. Over the past year, in pro bono partnership with the Schools Consent Project , Amazon legal volunteers in New York City conducted those frank conversations with about 300 students in the city’s middle and high schools, explaining laws pertaining to sexual consent and how they apply within a cyber context.
Amazon hopes to help the Schools Consent Project expand the workshops to more schools in the coming year to serve 4,000 additional students, said Meaghan Atkinson, a senior corporate counsel for Amazon Stores.
Importantly, the discussions focus not only on sexting, but on providing students information on how to prevent and report sexual crimes. The Amazon lawyers undergo a training from the Schools Consent Project, the originator of the workshops, and often shadow an experienced presenter before leading a workshop themselves. “It was kind of difficult at first, but once you do a couple, it’s totally fine,” Atkinson said.
The lawyers start by presenting a set of diverse scenarios related to consent, then define with candid clarity the crimes of sexual abuse and rape, explain sexting laws, and reveal the sobering sentence for sending or receiving explicit images when under age 18 (a maximum sentence of 15 to 30 years, depending on whether a prosecution takes place at the state or federal level).
“Sure, there’s some giggling at the beginning, with kids passing notes or punching each other in the arm — things that 14-yearolds do,” Atkinson said. “But even those initially fooling around during the workshop end up getting a lot out of it. They have all kinds of questions for us, as you might expect.”
Protecting children from sexual abuse has been at the core of Amazon’s pro bono portfolio in India since 2017, with lawyers and legal professionals having educated about 12,000 children and 5,000 teachers so far though school-based initiatives since the program’s inception.
Learning sessions, conducted in partnership with HAQ: Centre for Child Rights , train teachers about their legal responsibilities to report suspected abuse, and instruct children on the difference between proper and improper touch. The sessions specifically designed for youth also provide information on when, where, and how to reach out for help.
Recognizing the growing risks within the digital realm, the Indiabased lawyers adapted HAQ’s curriculum over the past year to include a 90-minute lesson on the topic of cyber safety, tailoring the talk and activities to reach kindergarteners through 12th graders. “We explain to students how to protect themselves, as well as what is illegal to do online,” said Ambika Kapur, a senior executive assistant for Amazon’s legal team in India.
By centering in on such an important issue, Amazon has served as a model in India for the concept of pro bono, which still is considered novel, and is just starting to grow and spread to other cities like Bengaluru. Out of a team of about 65 Amazon lawyers and legal professionals, “there were about five or six counsel who worked on pro bono initially,” Kapur said. “Now, the moment we line up a session in a school, our people say, ‘I want to do the session!’ Everyone on our team is keen to work on our pro bono activities because they have been so impactful.”
Learn more about Amazon’s pro bono child protection initiatives in India (We Serve, page 25).
Refugee Support
Champion for refugees speaks to the power of collective action for the global good
A conversation with Kelly T. Clements, deputy high commissioner for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
Currently, some 120 million people are displaced around the world — the 12th consecutive year this number has risen, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency entrusted by the UN General Assembly to provide international protection to refugees and, together with governments, seek solutions for them.
With a global workforce of 20,000 personnel across 136 countries and more than 550 locations, UNHCR safeguards the lives, rights, and well-being of people forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict, and persecution. But UNHCR cannot do this alone. UNHCR
Deputy High Commissioner Kelly T. Clements emphasizes that pro bono legal work is one of many ways the international community can work together to support those displaced and address this growing crisis.
For several years, Amazon has provided no-cost legal assistance to refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants around the world. These pro bono efforts — performed in collaboration with community organizations, NGOs, private law firms, and other legal entities — share a common purpose: to bring safety and peace of mind to displaced persons and families so they can build their own futures and pursue their dreams.
In October 2024, DHC Clements served as keynote speaker at Amazon’s Pro Bono Week, an annual global event promoting and celebrating pro bono activities. In a conversation with Najib Saïl , Amazon senior legal counsel in France and pro bono lead in Europe, she reflects on the critical role pro bono partnerships play in assisting forcibly displaced persons.
Saïl:
Your lifelong humanitarian work has brought you to Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. You have said that throughout your 30-plus year career on this global stage, you have seen both the good and the bad. What drove you to make refugee support the focus of your life’s work?
Clements:
From the very beginning of my career, I sought meaningful work where I could make a real difference, serve a broader purpose, and be surrounded by inspiring people. For the past 34 years, working with refugees and others forced to flee war, violence, and persecution, I’ve been driven by a mix of loss, hope, and an unwavering conviction that the world must do better to address major inequalities. My life’s work is my small contribution to that broader effort.
Some of my earliest experiences in refugee and humanitarian crises cemented this path for me. In Bangladesh in 1992, I encountered deeply traumatized Rohingya women who had become the sole providers for their families. It was then I realized that even as a junior aid worker, I could make a difference in someone’s life. More recently, in Ukraine, I spoke with strong, determined women who, despite immense hardship, never gave up on their families and communities. These and countless other encounters have been a source of deep inspiration, fueling my dedication to this work.
Coming from a family of educators, grounded in the values of public service, this journey feels, in many ways, like the natural path I was meant to take. I have been truly fortunate to have had the opportunity to pursue this career, and I continue to be inspired by the strength and resilience of the people I have met along the way.
Saïl:
Can you talk about the role that pro bono work can play in this arena?
REFUGEE SUPPORT
Clements:
Pro bono work plays a crucial role in supporting refugees and forcibly displaced people, offering services that can truly change lives. Lawyers, with their specialized skills, have a unique ability to make a profound difference. By offering their expertise, they help refugees navigate complex legal systems, secure rights, access the resources and services they need, and protect them from exploitation and abuse.
For many displaced people, arriving in foreign — and often unwelcoming — environments can be overwhelming. Even basic tasks, like opening a bank account or obtaining a SIM card, can be hindered by legal and policy barriers. Pro bono lawyers are vital in overcoming these challenges, working directly with individuals or advising UNHCR on how to ensure that displaced people can access key services, such as cash assistance programs that promote financial inclusion and autonomy.
Beyond individual cases, pro bono work can also drive much-needed policy change, advocating for fairer systems that better serve refugees. Lawyers can challenge unjust policies or practices, provide training and support to local organizations, and help communities strengthen their capacity to respond to the needs of all those forced to flee. Our collaboration with Amazon is a powerful example of how pro bono work fosters partnerships among the private sector, legal professionals, and humanitarian organizations. Together, these efforts create comprehensive solutions for refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced and stateless persons.
Saïl:
At Amazon, we have found that pro bono projects where we serve refugees or migrants on a personal basis can be particularly inspiring because of that human connection. At the same time, we understand the importance of providing legal research and other services that benefit a large group of refugees who we never will get a chance to meet. Why are both levels of service vital in the long run?
Clements:
Working directly with forcibly displaced people is rewarding and meaningful. It is inspiring to witness their resilience first-hand. However, there are broader, systemic issues that require our attention if we are to achieve lasting solutions for refugees. Addressing these issues calls for higher-level efforts that are just as valuable as frontline operational work in having a longer-term impact.
At UNHCR, we operate in a vast array of jurisdictions, each with its own legal complexities. We simply do not have the capacity to navigate all the hurdles that displaced populations face in accessing their rights and services. This is where the legal expertise and support of partners such as Amazon become indispensable. Their rigorous and reliable assessments and advice help us to tackle the diverse challenges refugees encounter, and while this might not involve direct engagement with them, it is just as critical to our mission and we are deeply committed to it.
Saïl:
With so much going on in the world, how does one keep the urgent needs of refugees at the forefront of public dialogue, let alone keep that conversation civil, focused, and humane?
Clements:
It is not easy! We often observe that each new crisis seems to push all the others out of the headlines, and when media attention shifts, so does the focus of the international community. Sudan is a clear example of this. Today, about 10.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, with the country now battling disease outbreaks, flooding, and hunger. Yet after the initial flurry of interest, Sudan is no longer getting the attention it so urgently needs and deserves — whether in terms of reporting, funding, or diplomatic engagement.
But we must persevere. Our role is to keep engaging with the public, governments, partners, donors, and the private sector, building alliances and attracting the support that is so desperately needed. It’s crucial that we make our case in a reasoned and civil manner, grounded in facts and evidence. Like many, we are constantly fighting against misinformation and hate speech. Our goal is to highlight the positive contribution of refugees and ensure the truth is heard.
Saïl:
With more than 120 million forcibly displaced people scattered throughout the globe, it’s easy for individuals — even those with the heart of a humanitarian — to contemplate the logistical complexity around serving refugees and conclude the issue is just too big for them to make a meaningful impact. What would you say to them to demonstrate otherwise?
Clements:
I would emphasize that no contribution is too small. Our responses have to be collective, and pro bono legal support is always welcome and always has an impact.
As individuals, there are countless ways we can contribute. We can seek out and support organizations of all sizes that support refugees and asylum seekers. We can offer our time and expertise, employment opportunities or training, or language lessons. Sometimes, simply connecting with those who are trying to rebuild their lives after displacement can make a profound difference.
Additionally, we can stay engaged as informed citizens, learning about refugee issues and educating others.
Individuals can amplify their impact by supporting organizations like UNHCR. With our global reach, experience, and extensive networks of partners, we are equipped to tackle the complexity of refugee crises on a broader scale.
Saïl:
How can pro bono partnerships, including those we initiate at Amazon, offer even greater value in helping this cause?
REFUGEE SUPPORT
Clements:
UNHCR greatly values your unique expertise and resources — both at Amazon and across the broader private sector. We are excited to collaborate with Amazon’s legal team on several key projects, including efforts around financial inclusion and the mapping of refugee rights. The size and diversity of Amazon’s legal team will bring immense value to these initiatives.
This type of partnership provides us with access to specialized, multi-jurisdictional expertise that would otherwise be inaccessible. Through this collaboration, we can amplify our impact, reach a broader audience, and work toward sustainable, long-term solutions that address the root causes of the challenges faced by refugees and displaced people. Together, we can achieve far more and make a profound difference in the lives of those forced to flee.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
National Legal Aid & Defender Association, Exemplar Awardee 2024
David Zapolsky, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy & General Counsel
Pro Bono Partnership, 2024 Pro Bono Champion, In-House Legal Team
Audible Legal
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Volunteer of the Month (June 2024)
Gavin Pereira, Corporate Counsel, Audible Kids in Need of Defense, KINDness Award 2024
Sarah Mohr, Corporate Counsel, Prime Video
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Amazon legal team wishes to give a special thank you to members of the Davis Wright Tremaine team for their significant time, support, and partnership in helping us to create this year’s pro bono report highlighting our global efforts and celebrating the 10-year milestone of Amazon’s pro bono program. Davis Wright Tremaine also is one of many great partners in Amazon’s work to provide pro bono services to people and communities in need.