In 2008, over 2,200 people participated in a firmwide vote choosing WaterAid as our first charity of the year. We are funding safe water projects in Mozambique

Highlights


  • Winner, 2009 CSR Programme of the Year, Legal Business Awards
  • 2009, joined the UN Global Compact - the first major international law firm to do so
  • First firmwide charity of the year - WaterAid - helping to provide safe water to communities in Mozambique
  • 'Standout', Responsible Business Category, 2008 Financial Times Innovative Lawyers report
  • Winner, 2008 International Financial Law Review European Pro Bono Award
  • Business in the Community Big Tick 2007 and 2008 for our programme for homeless people
  • Winner, Exceptional Achievement 2008 Managing Partners' Forum Award for our 35-year partnership with Tower Hamlets Legal Advice Centre.
  • Winner, The Lawyer's 2008 Law Firm of the Year award, partly 'in recognition of the firm's achievements in the sphere of corporate responsibility'
  • Highly commended, Law Society of England and Wales’ Excellence in Social Responsibility Award 2008
  • In 2007/2008 29 per cent of our people firmwide contributed over 30,000 hours to our community and pro bono activities
  • Certified CarbonNeutral® across all our offices
  • A reduction of 4.6 per cent per person in our greenhouse gas emissions across the firm
  • Clean City Award winner in the UK since 1999

Assurance

This 2007/2008 CSR report is an update on our activities since the 2006/2007 report. Unless otherwise stated, the data is for our financial year May 2007 to April 2008. We have also included information on more recent activities.

We are the only major international law firm to produce an externally assured CSR report using the AA1000 international assurance standard and the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. We also use the London Benchmarking Group model to evaluate our community and pro bono activities and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management to analyse our carbon footprint.

Looking forward, our web-based report enables us to provide up-to-date information for our 27 offices in 15 countries and to minimise our contribution to climate change.

Corporate social responsibility: making a difference around the world

Welcome to our international corporate social responsibility (CSR) report for 2007/2008. 'Making a difference around the world' assesses the progress made in our continuing commitment to be both a socially and environmentally responsible business and an excellent employer. This commitment features strongly in our strategy for the firm and is as important now – in a time of economic turbulence – as it has ever been.

Preparing the report

Our CSR report uses recognised reporting guidelines to provide information, in a systematic way, on our commitments, activities, achievements and approach to social and environmental responsibility in our offices around the world. We focus on issues that are relevant to us, such as law and ethics; our people and diversity; climate change and the environment; and community and pro bono legal advice.

We hope the report will help to improve people's understanding of the firm and the way we conduct our business, by providing insights into our commitment to:

  • be an excellent employer;
  • attract and retain people from a diverse pool of talent;
  • minimise our contribution to climate change;
  • have a positive impact on the communities in which we work, and beyond; and
  • make a valuable contribution to promoting human rights and improving access to justice for people in need.

We find CSR reporting a useful and thought-provoking exercise, which helps us in our ongoing efforts to ensure that we remain an outstanding law firm.

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