Since it was established in 2008, the Chubb Rule of Law Fund has made 66 grants to support projects around the world that promote the preservation and advancement of the rule of law. The projects range from supporting the development of rules-based legal systems, independent and knowledgeable judiciaries and anti-corruption measures to improving administrative procedures and access to legal services.
With this group of newly funded projects, the Chubb Rule of Law Fund has strengthened its focus on combating racism in America's justice system, with support going to initiatives that are working to improve police and community relations, and to understand and reduce racial inequities throughout the criminal justice process.
"Events unfolding across our nation in the last year have further focused our attention on what more Chubb can do to fight racial injustice. Funding Chubb Rule of Law Fund projects that combat racial injustice in our legal system is part of this effort. The organizations and programs we are supporting are doing important work to improve police and community relations and promote a more just criminal justice system," said Joseph Wayland, Executive Vice President, Chubb Group and General Counsel. "As Chubb strives to create a culture of anti-racism, we recognize that we, as a company and as individuals, cannot be bystanders. Our support for philanthropy and citizenship, including this new round of Chubb Rule of Law Fund projects, is one way we are advancing this goal."
The new project commitments are:
Equal Justice USA was awarded a $250,000 grant to expand its Newark, N.J.-based police-training program, Trauma to Trust, to Baton Rouge, La. Trauma to Trust is an innovative program that increases empathy, understanding, trust and accountability between community residents and police officers. Over multiple sessions, police and community members work with a trained facilitator to learn how historical and personal trauma affects their interactions and perceptions of one another, building trust and fairness in community policing. This is the fund's second grant to Equal Justice USA for the Trauma to Trust program.
The Policing Project at NYU Law School was awarded $350,000 for two projects to reform policing practices. In Chicago, the grant will support expansion of successful community policing practices that enhance accountability, problem solving and increased positive contact between police officers and neighborhood residents, seeking to transform the dynamic between the Chicago Police Department and the communities it serves. grant will help to develop the program as a model for other cities. The grant will also support the organization's First Response project, which is in the process of developing state-of-the-art protocols for responding to emergency 911 calls to reduce the likelihood of inadvertent, unnecessary, or disproportionate use of force.
The Vera Institute of Justice was awarded $250,000 to support Motion for Justice, a program that works with prosecutors to reduce racial inequities throughout the criminal justice process. The Institute is working with prosecutors in counties in seven states, and funding from Chubb will be used to expand the program to reach an additional 10 prosecutors across the country.
The Southern Center for Human Rights was awarded $250,000 to develop a data model and database to provide an empirical basis to assess the impact of race in the administration of criminal justice in Georgia and Alabama. Chubb's grant will cover the full cost of creatinge. this database.
These recently funded projects build upon the fund's ongoing support for racial justice initiatives. Last year, the Chubb Rule of Law Fund awarded additional grants to two organizations working to combat bias in the judicial system. The Pennsylvania Innocence Project was awarded a grant to help it fulfill its mission to address racial disparities in the criminal justice system by seeking to amend state law to provide for greater transparency of police misconduct and access to records of police investigations. And Community Legal Services of Philadelphia was awarded a grant for a program focused on reforming occupational licensing laws, which often prevent people with criminal records from obtaining professional licenses, which disproportionately affect poor minority communities.
The 15 law firms that support the fund, sharing Chubb's vision of collaboration between in-house and outside counsel to advance the rule of law globally, are: Clyde & Co; Cozen O'Connor; Debevoise & Plimpton; DLA Piper; Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani; Jackson Lewis P.C.; Kennedys; Lewis Brisbois; London Fischer; Norton Rose Fulbright; O'Melveny & Myers; Paul, Weiss; Sullivan & Cromwell; White and Williams; and Wilson Elser.