Baker & McKenzie has appointed Madeleine Schachter as global director of pro bono and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with the appointment coming as the firm moves to strengthen its CSR initiatives with clients.

In the newly-created role, New York-based partner Schachter (pictured) will work exclusively on CSR matters, including pro bono work with an emphasis on international humanitarian rights, constitutional law and civil rights issues.

She will also play a lead role in the firm's efforts to team up with in-house counsel at several key international clients to launch a series of CSR initiatives and pro bono work.

The firm has already teamed up with Accenture and Google – two of its largest international clients – to launch a series of initiatives with a strong focus on social inclusion in Nepal over the last few months.

Prior to joining Bakers in 2008, Schachter was an associate with Shearman & Sterling and spent two decades in-house, including stints at Time Warner and Hachette Book Group.

Commenting on the initiative, which will see Accenture lawyers working across four continents with the Public Interest Law Institute to promote social inclusion in Nepal, Schachter said: "We analysed legal protections from discrimination and harassment and incentives for education and literacy, leveraging the extensive substantive knowledge and multijurisdictional qualifications of our teammates in finance, employment, tax technology, intellectual property and corporate law."