2025 Annual Report

We expected 2025 to be a challenging year. Few of us anticipated just how quickly those challenges would materialize, or what severe shockwaves they would bring.

On January 20, 2025, an executive order freezing all U.S. foreign aid hit our international community like a tidal wave. For the following weeks, we watched as each day brought more notices and orders instructing our clients that projects should be paused, discontinued, or shut down entirely.

The Vance Center didn’t escape the fallout. We lost federal funding for several projects, forcing us to scale back or put them on hold while we looked for new sources of support. We’re fortunate to have many reliable supporters and were able to secure support for some of those projects, but several lines of our work are still on hold for now.

Yet we count ourselves among the lucky ones. Many of our international clients and partners are confronting a far more dire outlook, from a total wipeout of funding to laying off nearly all their staff or even closing operations.

This year brought significant challenges for global civil society, and there are more clouds looming. Yet, as events evolve and our work with them, our approach and commitment remain the same: engaging our networks to expand access to justice for all and affirm the role of an ethically active legal profession.

Here at the Vance Center, we are fortunate to have strong international networks, built over decades of collaboration, that help guide and sustain our collective work.

That resilience and reliability helped us weather the storms of 2025. Our commitment to our mission never wavered, and our pro bono legal services were in high demand.

We took on more ambitious human rights litigation, contributed to landmark decisions that may reshape international law on climate change, joined a global coalition of anti-corruption monitors, produced practical resources on topics from Mexico’s judicial reform to securing vital records for immigration clients, and defended independent journalists from vexatious lawsuits. When our clients and contacts needed support, they knew they could turn to us.

We were able to do all of this thanks to our networks: hundreds of pro bono lawyers at dozens of firms around the world who gave their time and attention; clearinghouse coordinators who took on yet another project; clients who helped spread the word about our services to their colleagues; and of course Vance Center Committee members, their law firms, and generous funders that sustain our work.

In 2025, we worked on 300 pro bono matters, serving 193 clients alongside more than 1450 pro bono lawyers from 150 firms.

Even in this difficult year, we enjoyed seeing greater interest in and support for our programming. Lawyers for Reporters received several significant grants and helped establish a Canadian version, proving that our effective model endures. We were delighted to receive a grant to expand our work in sub-Saharan Africa, enabling us to hire a full-time staff attorney and consultants to heighten our focus on the region.

As demand for our work grew throughout 2025, so did our team. We added six attorneys to the staff and welcomed several new law firms to our Committee. We also refreshed our look to reach a wider audience with updated branding and communications materials, including this report.

And the changes keep coming. As of May 2026, we’re moving toward a shared leadership structure, as Jaime Chávez Alor stepped up to join Alex Papachristou as co-executive directors. They will share responsibility for leading the organization’s strategic direction and ensuring effective fulfillment of our mission, responding to evolving needs while seizing opportunities to grow.

In times of crisis, we look to one another. At the Vance Center, we have the privilege of standing alongside organizations and individuals fighting to defend civic space and protect human rights around the world. As the global legal community faces some existential questions about its role in upholding the rule of law, we’re grateful to work with so many legal professionals who recognize their responsibility and are prepared to take action.

We remain committed to our mission of engaging lawyers across borders to support civil society and defend justice, wherever these efforts are needed.

Read the full report here.