Global Law Firm Cycles for Child Justice Around the World raising €42,806

As part of DLA Piper's three year global partnership with UNICEF to raise $1.5 million, the global law firm held an international Cycle Challenge fundraiser which took place on Thursday September 25 2014 across ten offices in the Middle East and Europe.

DLA Piper and UNICEF, the world's leading organisation for children, have established a ground-breaking partnership aimed at strengthening the protection of vulnerable children around the world. 

The Europe and Middle East UNICEF Cycle challenge involved 29 teams competing in each of DLA Piper's offices simultaneously. Each team consisted of 6 - 10 cyclists combining DLA Piper employees and clients on exercise bikes. The challenge was to complete the furthest collective distance possible as a team on one shared bike in four hours, with a prize for the team that cycled the furthest and the team that raised the most sponsorship donations for UNICEF. 

The Hubs and Spokes from the Dubai office won the challenge and the top three fundraising teams all hailed from the Paris office. 

The firm's Madrid office saw team "Las siete maravillas" cycle the furthest distance locally.  The firm matched the €21,403 raised by all competing teams culminating in a grand total of €42,806 fundraised by DLA Piper for UNICEF. 

Federico Sutti, the Managing Director of Europe and Africa said: "I am incredibly proud of all the hundreds of our employees who participated in and contributed to the total funds raised for our ground breaking partnership with UNICEF. Our aim is to support UNICEF in its goal of strengthening the protection of children around the world. Our international fundraising challenge aims to raise as much money and awareness as possible for such a fantastic cause."

The partnership is supporting UNICEF’s child justice work in Bangladesh to help improve the standards of care and treatment for children who come into contact with the law as victims, witnesses and offenders. 

With more than 65 million children in Bangladesh the scale of these challenges is enormous. The projects DLA Piper is supporting are helping to put in place the legal, social and organisational frameworks that will better protect these children.

During the three years of our partnership, DLA Piper will also be providing pro bono assistance to UNICEF, in support of UNICEF’s global child justice work.