Ropes & Gray Provides Pro Bono Help and Other Support to Benefit Ukraine

Ropes & Gray managing partner David Djaha, litigation & enforcement partner Ama Adams, and actor and BlueCheck co-founder Liev Schreiber at pro bono client event on May 18.

Ropes & Gray lawyers are partnering with nonprofits to provide pro bono legal help to benefit people affected by the war in Ukraine. 

We are teaming up with BlueCheck, an initiative supported by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, which focuses on getting financial aid to frontline organizations in Ukraine. Led by litigation & enforcement partners Ama Adams and Amanda Raad, the Ropes & Gray team is drawing on the firm’s deep experience in anti-corruption and international risk to help vet prospective grassroots organizations in Ukraine and elsewhere, along with reputation diligence firm Integrity Risk International. This partnership helps BlueCheck make sound and efficient decisions when distributing aid and gives donors the confidence that their support is reaching the people of Ukraine who need it most. 

The firm is also working with longtime pro bono partner Lawyers Without Borders on a project to help Afghans who were evacuated to Ukraine and are once again displaced by war, among other pro bono projects to benefit Ukrainians still in the country and around the world. 

On May 18, the firm held a panel discussion about some of this work at its Washington, D.C. office. The panel featured actor and humanitarian Liev Schreiber, who co-founded BlueCheck; Murphy Poindexter and Michael Goldfarb, two other BlueCheck co-founders; Robin Taylor, executive director of Lawyers Without Borders; Ropes & Gray litigation & enforcement associate Sean Adessky; data, privacy & cybersecurity associate May Yang; and paralegal Julia Sabik. 

Later that day, Ropes & Gray sponsored Unite for Ukraine, a special event held at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington to raise money for Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen and the U.S.–Ukraine Foundation’s humanitarian efforts. Hosted by Liev Schreiber, the event featured a performance by members of the Washington National Opera Orchestra. Ukraine’s current ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, also attended.