Two Philadelphia Nonprofits Benefit from Unique Ace Legal Charitable Program
"We are glad we can support these two legal organizations and the staff who are working tirelessly to advocate for the rights of women and low-income residents in Philadelphia," said Robert F. Cusumano, General Counsel, ACE Limited. "Especially in this time of great need and financial difficulty, I am proud of the ACE lawyers and our law firm partners who are making this possible."
The ACE Rule of Law Fund is a unique partnership among ACE, its legal staff and several partner firms. Funded by voluntary contributions from individual in-house lawyers and matching contributions, the Fund supports projects to enhance the rule of law around the world.
Lawyer contributions are matched by the company's charitable foundation, its general counsel and eight outside law firms: Clyde & Co., Cozen O'Connor, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, DLA Piper, Mayer Brown LLP, O'Melveny & Myers LLP, Ropes & Gray LLP and Susman Godfrey LLP. Through this cumulative matching, the in-house lawyers' contributions were in effect multiplied 12 times. More than 50 ACE lawyers have contributed approximately $15,000 to the fund, with the series of compound matching contributions bringing the initial fundraising total to about $180,000.
"As corporate lawyers, we tend to take the existence of a rule of law for granted. But we have to keep in mind that the rule of law is not yet universal, not always available to all who need it and very much in need of a support system," said Mr. Cusumano. "The partnering and compounding approaches we use in the fund allow us to pool our resources to make a real difference for organizations like Community Legal Services and the Women's Law Project."
To date, the fund has supported six nonprofit legal organizations with grants totaling approximately $90,000 for projects in Philadelphia, New York and Africa.
The ACE Group is a global leader in insurance and reinsurance serving a diverse group of clients. Headed by ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE), the ACE Group conducts its business on a worldwide basis with operating subsidiaries in more than 50 countries. Additional information can be found at: www.acelimited.com.
