Aspen Institute - DLA Piper attorneys have worked with the Aspen Institute to create, manage and fund the Middle East Investment Initiative (MEII), which is a nonprofit designed to facilitate economic development and job creation in the West Bank and Gaza.  The MEII/CHF Loan Guarantee Facility makes $160 million from Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Palestine Investment Fund available to guarantee loans made by local banks to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Palestinian Territories. This program is expected to mobilize $228 million in loans to local businesses in a variety of sectors. Loans granted already through eight local banks are supporting activities such as: 
        • Investing in capital equipment for the manufacturing sector; 
        • Expanding or offering new services in the transportation and IT sectors; 
        • Increasing capacity and improving standards in the construction sector; 
        • Adding new production lines for textiles or olive oil.

Transwestern - In Chicago, DLA Piper attorneys and the firm's client, Transwestern, have paired up to sponsor a team of City Year AmeriCorps Volunteers. The DLA Piper/Transwestern City Year Team is made up of young adults from diverse economic, racial, and geographical backgrounds who have committed to spending a year mentoring and tutoring children at Bethune Elementary School on Chicago's West Side.

Working together, DLA Piper and Transwestern will spend the year working on behalf of the volunteers, hosting a book drive for the school, participating in public service days, and hosting "thank you" events for the volunteers. For example, DLA Piper hosted a lunch so that its attorneys, Transwestern staff, and City Year Volunteers could get to know each other. In addition, DLA Piper and Transwestern employees delivered Valentine's Day treats -- along with a much needed dose of encouragement and support -- to the volunteers. In June 2007, DLA Piper and Transwestern were present for the much celebrated graduation of the City Year volunteers.

Accenture – Our Chicago office partners with Accenture attorneys to teach Constitutional Law to fifth graders through the Voices program sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago. Lessons focus on the Bill of Rights and the court system. At the end of the program, the students stage a mock criminal trial. Accenture also joins with the Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia offices to regularly volunteer at food bank nights.

Pfizer –DLA Piper attorneys participate in a seminar series, Strategic Legal Thinking for Not-for-Profit Executives, addressing corporate governance issues. In partnership with law firms, local United Ways, and local legal service providers, Pfizer, Inc. organizes these seminars for leaders of nonprofits to address some of the legal issues they face. We were pleased to moderate, participate in, and host the webcast of the seminars in our Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington DC offices. The Fall 2007 presentations covered employment law and other general legal issues that pertain specifically to nonprofits. The September 23, 2008, seminar will address managing volunteers and the December 5, 2008, seminar will focus on the revised tax form 990.  Since 2006, we have worked continuously to offer the seminar series regularly and have played an ever larger role in organizing each one.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP – As part of Access to Education, our New York office’s signature project, we partner with PwC executives to advise individual Head Start programs on key transactional, compliance and real estate matters and serve in a general counsel-like capacity. Playing a lead role in this project, PwC is assisting DLA Piper attorneys in providing key compliance and governance training for selected Head Start directors, board members and administrators. Specifically, PwC is leveraging its accounting expertise to provide training regarding financial statements, audit and fraud protection recommendations.

Sears – Real estate attorneys in the Chicago office partnered with Sears attorneys to represent home buyers as part of CHAC, Inc.’s Choose to Own Program, which enables qualified recipients of housing assistance payments (formerly called “Section 8 vouchers”) to use them to purchase single-family homes, condominiums, or cooperatives within Chicago.  This project was offered to the firm by the Community Economic Development Law Project, part of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc.