DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary's nonprofit arm has chosen its international pro bono projects for the coming year, and two Baltimore lawyers will play a role in them.

Last year, after DLA Piper was formed by a transatlantic merger, the firm announced a $6 million international pro bono effort called New Perimeter. The firm has made the same commitment this year -- 13,000 attorney hours, with an estimated value of more than $6 million. For 2006, New Perimeter will work with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, the Global FoodBanking Network and a microfinance project for CHF International.

DLA Piper has also committed to more than 100,000 hours of pro bono work in the United States this year, with a total value estimated at $30 million.

In Africa, DLA Piper attorneys will work on site with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and provide legal representation. The firm will also help establish an online library and litigation manual related to constitutional and human rights law in Southern Africa.

DLA Piper will work with the nascent Global FoodBanking Network on the legal aspects of launching food bank networks in Israel, Ghana and South Africa. And the firm will help CHF International -- which supports worldwide community, habitat and finance initiatives -- tweak its organizational structure and find sustainable funding for its 11 microfinance institutions.

DLA Piper will also continue to support projects from New Perimeter's first year, which is where the Baltimore lawyers will come in. New Perimeter's initial focus was on projects with the Global Fund -- which fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in impoverished countries -- and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

DLA Piper helped the Global Fund set up its own Office of the Inspector General and develop a whistleblower complaint system to detect inappropriate use of grant funds. This year, Ellen D. Ginsberg, an associate in DLA Piper's Baltimore office, will spend three months at the Global Fund's office in Geneva to help its legal department. Ginsberg speaks Arabic, French and Hebrew, according to her bio. Other DLA Piper lawyers will help the new Inspector General and work with the Global Fund on risk management and policy development.

In Kosovo, DLA Piper spent last year helping to draft laws that would establish an independent judiciary. This year, DLA Piper will work with the interim government to pass the legislation and help the new Ministry of Justice implement the laws. A DLA Piper spokesman said Glen Allen, a litigator in the Baltimore office, will help with the year-two effort in Kosovo.

In early 2005, DLA Piper was formed by the merger of Piper Rudnick Gray Cary and British law firm DLA. DLA Piper predecessor Piper & Marbury was founded in Baltimore more than 100 years ago.

As of 2005, DLA Piper ranked the second-largest law firm in Baltimore, according to Baltimore Business Journal research, with just under 175 attorneys based here.

DLA Piper has 3,100 lawyers in 22 countries on five continents.