About us
'Freshfields' approach demonstrates clear leadership in reporting and transparency and shows that their activity is not cosmetic' 2008 Law Society Awards, Excellence in Social Responsibility category
| Firmwide turnover May 2007/April 2008: | £1,178m |
| Firmwide turnover May 2006/April 2007: | £986m |
| Net profits May 2007/April 2008: | £595m |
| Net profits May 2006/April 2007: | £490m |
We will be producing our first LLP accounts for our financial year May 2008/April 2009 in late autumn 2009.
We are a leading international law firm and – with around 2,500 lawyers worldwide – combine a depth of local knowledge with expertise across practice areas and borders.
As of May 2009, we have 27 offices in 15 countries across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US. Since our corporate social responsibility (CSR) report is for offices in operation during our financial reporting period 2007/2008, we have not included data for our offices in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, but this will be included in our next CSR report.
Our CSR report sits online alongside our firm website and we would encourage readers to look at both websites to gain a complete picture of the firm. Find out more about our firm at www.freshfields.com or go directly to sections on:
- Our people – lawyers, trainees, business services, careers, alumni
- Our work – clients, practice and industry groups
- Our offices around the world
- Our beliefs and culture and the values that guide us
- Our awards for legal work
- News and publications
We have divided this CSR report into the following key sections:
- Introduction and recent highlights of aspects of our CSR programme
- Senior partners' statement
- Our approach to sustainability
- About us – our offices, management structure and organisation
- Integrating CSR – our CSR principles and responsibilities, how we work with our stakeholders (in particular, the people who work here), CSR structures, CSR contacts, why we think CSR reporting is important
- CSR reporting – progress against our targets and the Global Reporting Initiative, and external commentary on our report
- Law and ethics – whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, anti-money laundering, client complaints, CSR and our role as lawyers, charter of core principles of the European legal profession
- Our people and diversity – diversity training, our diversity principles, our culture, the demographic profile of our people, our people and diversity activities in London, promoting diversity, developing our people, reward, support and well-being, diversity working group
- Climate change and the environment – carbon offsetting, WaterAid, our impact, environmental priorities, engaging our people, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, carbon capture and storage, environmental and sustainability policy, our activities in London, environmental working group
- Community investment and pro bono legal advice – volunteering during the working day, new developments, the statistics, improving access to justice, reducing homelessness, promoting human rights, raising the achievements of young people, team challenges, working with international charities, our focus on Africa, the activities in our offices, our community and pro bono policy, our volunteers, community and pro bono committee