Lawyers Without Borders Reaches Out to Omaha
Area attorneys have a standing invitation to help advance the rule of law on a global scale through Lawyers Without Borders.
The Omaha Bar Association hosted LWOB Executive Director Robin Taylor in November at a continuing legal education session at the Field Club of Omaha.
Taylor explained the nonprofit and its mission to improve access to justice around the world, often in countries with poor legal infrastructure.
“There are gaps at the highest levels of law firms and prosecution services, and at the basic community level, so that is an area that we focus on,” Taylor said.
LWOB works with stakeholders, including lawyers, judges, law enforcement and community leaders, to improve access to justice and ensure that justice is meted out fairly.
In describing an attempt to bring plea agreements to a village in Kenya, Taylor spoke about the difficulties of bringing modern legal remedies to communities that historically have delivered brutal forms of punishment.
“I was told by a senior elder in a remote village of Kenya, where they had no prioritization and really little infrastructure, ‘If you implement these plea agreements and the community doesn’t believe justice has been done, they will pile him up in a pile of tires and set him on fire,’” Taylor said.
That interaction “taught me that the actions you take, even here in your own community, have consequences,” Taylor said.
Taylor, who was a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice for 20 years before joining the nonprofit, compared the work LWOB does to the work of Médecins Sans Frontières — Doctors Without Borders — which provides medical aid to underserved communities in 70 countries around the world.
That organization performs medical procedures around the world, Taylor said, “but lawyers come with their pens. They don’t fight battles with firearms. They do it with their voice and with their advocacy.”
Taylor explained that advocacy and pro bono work is at the heart of what LWOB does, and the ultimate purpose of the seminar was to encourage attorneys in the United States to consider donating their time and expertise to the group.
“Part of the reason I came to Omaha is to talk to lawyers who really deeply care about pro bono service, about their community, and we are looking at how to make (working with LWOB) more accessible to lawyers here in the U.S.,” Taylor said.
Taylor was joined via videoconferencing during the seminar by Madina Qasimi, an Afghan human rights lawyer and scholar in residence with LWOB. Qasimi spoke of the need for lawyers and organizations like LWOB to help protect a vulnerable Afghan population.
“People of Afghanistan are in extreme need of protection,” Qasimi said. “The international community can raise the voice of Afghan people and can call on the Taliban to be accountable, to stop human rights violations.”
LWOB partners with 12 global law firms that provide most of the funding for the organization and allows the nonprofit to develop trial advocacy training programs and other educational material for stakeholders.
The LWOB presentation is available on demand for 1 hour of CLE credit at youtu.be/BnOHtzIuV-M. Email OBA Executive Director Dave Sommers at dave@omahabarassociation.com to receive credit.
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