Pro Bono

Commitment to Pro Bono Work

Wachtell Lipton is committed to supporting attorneys who undertake pro bono projects in all areas of the law.  Pro bono clients are clients of the firm, and no distinction is made between hours spent on pro bono or other client matters.

Recent Representative Matters

Attorneys at Wachtell Lipton have represented pro bono clients in many areas of the law including indigent criminal defense, family rights, immigration, nonprofit corporate and tax law, real estate, and the arts.  In litigation, recent representations include our work with the Office of the Appellate Defender and on the CJA Panel in the Southern District of New York, representing indigent criminal defendants at trial, plea hearings, sentencing, and appeal; in partnership with Her Justice, representing indigent women in the family court system who are often victims of domestic violence; serving as pro bono class counsel for prisoners at a New York state maximum security prison who successfully sued for better health care; and successfully vacating the murder conviction and life sentence of a wrongfully convicted man in Queens County.  We also regularly file amicus briefs on matters of legal significance, particularly related to the development of commercial and corporate law.  We handle non-litigation matters on a pro bono basis, as well.  We frequently assist nonprofit organizations in a variety of corporate and organizational matters.  For example, our attorneys have represented the American Friends of Rambam Medical Center, a 501(c)(3) corporation supporting a major research hospital in northern Israel and we assisted the Anne Frank House with its ground-breaking exhibit in New York City, the first ever such exhibit outside Amsterdam.

The firm provides partner supervision, training, and mentoring on all pro bono matters.  In addition, summer associates routinely participate in Wachtell Lipton’s pro bono practice.

Community Activities and Professional Activities

We are proud of the considerable contributions that Wachtell Lipton has made to the legal profession and the positive impact we have on our community through service on not-for-profit boards and bar associations, and financial support and leadership on numerous philanthropic and public policy causes.  Recent prominent efforts include our work with the Partnership for New York City and our assistance in the development of Pier55 in Manhattan, a beloved new park funded by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation.  In addition, our attorneys have taught courses at law schools including Columbia, Fordham, Harvard, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford and Yale, among others, in fields such as constitutional law, ethics, advanced criminal procedure, deal litigation, corporate governance, legal writing and corporate law.