International pro bono work tends to come in two forms: the relatively rare multijurisdictional projects that allow Am Law 200 firms to show off their international reach and cross-border expertise, and the more traditional matters, in which large firms support international efforts by providing stateside legal help.

Projects undertaken recently show that some firms are making strides in identifying the former, while maintaining a solid presence in the latter. Firms with large foreign offices say these efforts on behalf of governments or nongovernmental organizations are among the most popular with foreign-based partners and associates-so much so that Baker & McKenzie had to turn interested lawyers away from a recent international project after 45 quickly signed on. Other firms retained their domestic focus but still found projects that pack a real punch while utilizing a variety of legal skills.

The following is a sampling of both:

Baker & McKenzie

The firm has represented Washington, D.C.-based Public International Law & Policy Group, which offers legal advice on matters of international law, including peace negotiations, war crimes tribunals, and constitutional drafting. Last year the firm assisted in PILPG efforts in Kosovo (previous efforts were focused on Sri Lanka). The firm finished a position paper on principles of international law and how they related to Kosovo's final status. It also drafted a white paper addressing legal arguments against partition of Kosovo into Serb- and Albanian-dominated regions, and drew upon its alternative dispute resolution and transactional practices to put together a manual that will be used to train peace negotiators in other hot spots worldwide.

Number of hours spent on the PILPG project last year: 4,225

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 25 percent

Fenwick & West

On behalf of the San Francisco-based Institute for the Study and Development of Legal Systems, Victor Schachter, Fenwick's labor and employment practice chair, traveled to India in December 2005 and spent several weeks helping train Indian judicial officials to build a model alternative dispute resolution program in New Delhi. The program is intended to help alleviate a backlog estimated at 31 million civil cases nationwide. In its first few months off the ground, the New Delhi ADR program handled 2,500 civil disputes and settled about two-thirds of them, most in six to eight hours. Some of the cases had been on the docket for 16 to 24 years. Schachter recently returned from Bangalore, the capital of the state of Karnataka, where he helped train a team to institute a similar program.

Number of hours spent on the Indian ADR project last year: 488

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 6 percent

Goodwin Procter

Last year, Goodwin's IP lawyers helped procure patents on inexpensive, easy-to-use agricultural technologies for San Francisco-based KickStart, a longtime pro bono client that promotes sustainable development in African countries. The group has recently focused on filing and shepherding worldwide patent and trademark applications for an irrigation pump and other devices. Other Goodwin lawyers are helping the group develop innovative funding models and prepare and negotiate distribution agreements to help KickStart promote wider use of its products.

Hours spent on KickStart last year: 729

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 4 percent

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

The firm's recent work under the auspices of the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation involved 23 corporate lawyers and litigators in Paul, Weiss's New York, London, and Paris offices. In mid-2006, five governments, backed by the Foundation and several other international groups, agreed to pool money from special air travel levies to fund an international drug purchase facility known as UNITAID. Through the facility they hope to put pressure on drug companies to reduce the cost of medicines to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Paul, Weiss lawyers were asked by the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative to lead multiparty negotiations over a hosting agreement for UNITAID with the World Health Organization, a first step in getting the drug purchasing facility off the ground. "The kind of work that UNITAID involved, dealing with governments at a very high level, that's very hard to come by," says corporate partner Marco Masotti, who led the three-month negotiations.

Number of hours spent on UNITAID last year: 839

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 11 percent

Ropes & Gray

The firm's involvement in representing victims of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime goes back to 1989. After a successful effort in 2005 to recover more than $8 million for its client, Fundación Presidente Allende, from a bank in the United States, the firm last year pursued a suit against Banco de Chile, its former branch manager, and Pinochet's personal attorney. The suit, based on information developed in investigations by Ropes & Gray lawyers in three countries, alleged that the bank was complicit in Pinochet's money laundering. The case was dismissed earlier this year.

Number of hours spent on Chilean efforts last year: 2,560

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 13 percent

Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal

In October the firm obtained a $19 million default judgment against Emmanuel Constant, a former political leader of Haiti's state-sponsored death squad. The award, on behalf of three Haitian women who were tortured and raped in the early nineties, marked the first time that any Haitian official had been held accountable for these state-sponsored human rights abuses; Sonnenschein was tapped at the urging of the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability. The firm is currently trying to locate the assets of Constant, now a New York resident.

Number of hours spent on the Constant case last year: 1,699

Proportion of pro bono hours spent on international projects: 4 percent