Marcia Coyle reports, "Weil Gotshal attorneys monitor international criminal court in pro bono project," in National Law Journal.
Attorneys at New York's Weil Gotshal & Manges are leading an international pro bono project for Human Rights Watch in which they are monitoring and writing case digests, almost on a daily basis, on the voluminous decisions of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as attending the court's hearings in the Hague, the Netherlands.
"I consider it a unique project," said Eric Ordway, a leading partner in the firm's international arbitration practice. "Many law firms do work for NGOs [nongovernment organizations] on a project-by-project basis. But the work we are doing is almost expanding the staff of the NGO here. We have as many as 30 people working on the project. We have a system set up with tiers whereby certain associates review the cases; others review the summaries that are written and confer with representatives of Human Rights Watch. It's a fairly well-structured system and one that puts Human Rights Watch in a position where they can do much more than what they could with present staff."
The 15-month-old, ongoing project allows Human Rights Watch to get quick access to developments at the ICC and puts them in a better position to respond quickly to those developments, added Ordway.
The Weil Gotshal team recently was asked by Human Rights Watch to attend and report on ICC hearings and trials for Human Rights Watch, including the upcoming trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, the alleged leader of one of Ituri's most dangerous militias, the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), and the first person put in custody of the court.
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