Activities in mainland Europe

Graph of the value of our programme 2006/7 - 2007/8

In 2007/2008, 23 per cent of our people in our offices in mainland Europe participated in our community and pro bono activities, contributing over 7,200 hours – a significant increase on 18 per cent of people contributing over 3,500 hours in 2006/2007. Much of this increase is the result of our first Community Challenge month which has helped many offices (such as Amsterdam) to build relationships with community organisations.

Graph of people involved 2006/7 - 2007/8

Levels of activity vary for many reasons: for example, whereas Belgium has a strong tradition of pro bono work, until very recently pro bono work has been difficult to undertake in Germany. This also affects the value of the programme, as under the London Benchmarking Group model, time contributed to pro bono legal advice is valued at significantly more than community investment time.

Graph of hours contributed 2006/7 - 2007/8

Our offices in Europe get involved in team challenges, support fundraising initiatives, donate computers to community organisations and give blood to the Red Cross. Many of our offices have also developed other activities.

Each office has a co-ordinator and partner responsible for developing our community and pro bono activities, often as part of our wider CSR activities. In the past year our Paris office has created a part-time position in this area. In our German offices, we set up local CSR committees involving partners, associates and business services employees co-ordinated by a central CSR team that has also become more actively engaged in pro bono work. Our Spanish offices have a very active committee as well. As a result we expect to see a continued increase in activity in 2009.

We are supporters of the European Alliance for CSR, a joint initiative of the European Commission and the business community. As part of this, we are jointly leading a CSR Laboratory with Citi, KPMG and Business in the Community's ENGAGE. The Laboratory aims to demonstrate how skills for employability among disadvantaged groups of people in the EU can be enhanced and developed through employee community involvement, in particular through volunteering. In December 2008, we presented our recommendations and volunteering toolkit to various Members of the European Parliament and European Commission, to encourage and enable more businesses to support employee volunteering activities across the European Union. Several Freshfields' projects were showcased, including our job coaching scheme in Berlin, Cologne, and Frankfurt, work placements for homeless people and Number Partners in London, and the discovery day in Paris. You can find out more at www.engageyouremployees.org

'Freshfields' leadership in developing the employee community engagement Laboratory, communicating its outputs to the European Commission, involving their Teach First secondees and producing the report has been key to making all of this happen.'
Stephen Howard, CEO, Business in the Community

Find out more about our activities in:


1       Germany: Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich
2       Italy: Milan and Rome
3       Spain: Barcelona and Madrid

Our community and pro bono data has been compiled according to London Benchmarking Group (LBG) measurement principles.