US: New York City and Washington DC

'Our people have demonstrated a great capacity to appreciate the importance of these issues to the firm and the greater community. Our biggest challenge is to always view our social and environmental responsibilities as core matters deserving of our utmost attention and not peripheral ones that we address only when convenient or when we otherwise are not occupied by billable matters.'
Melissa Raciti-Knapp, partner responsible for CSR in the US

New York

In 2008, our office teamed up for the second time with Legal Outreach, a community organisation working with exceptional students from underserved communities throughout New York City, providing them with supplemental education and training to prepare them for college.

During the summer, the students intern at different law firms each week. Our office hosted four interns, who spent the week working on a mock acquisitions case with our corporate practice group, conducting due diligence interviews with our associates in New York, London, Munich, Paris and Tokyo. They then analysed their findings and presented their recommendation to a 'board of directors' played by six of our New York partners. The initiative looks set to become a regular fixture.

Every year, our New York office participates in New York Cares. Last year, volunteers spent a day helping clean up public parks, playgrounds and schools.

At Christmas, our US offices organise 'coat drives' for homeless people and participate in team challenges to package food and gift parcels for families in need.

Plans for 2009 include participating in the Thurgood Marshall legal internship programme and the Jeans for Families day.

Washington, DC

On the pro bono front, lawyers in Washington have assisted in filing Supreme Court briefs in the Krishna Maharaj case.

The office also donated $8,000 to the Continental Airlines Scholarship Fund, which enables disadvantaged students to continue their post-secondary education.

Community Challenge

As part of the second Community Challenge in 2008, a group of volunteers from the New York office helped at the Crotona children's centre, creating 'Mom Kits!' for young mothers currently living in shelters. Another group of volunteers spent the day exploring the Museum of Modern Art with 14 children from a bilingual class from Public School 33.

Volunteers from the Washington office assisted the DC Central Kitchen staff preparing meals for local charities and sorting food items for distribution to local charities.

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