Law and ethics
‘Freshfields’ second CSR report demonstrates continued progress in the
firm’s commitment to retain its leading position in CSR reporting in its sector.’
– The Corporate Citizenship Company
Winner CSR Firm of the Year 2007 Legal Business Awards
Business in the Community Big Tick Award 2007 for our programme for homeless people
Certified CarbonNeutral® by The CarbonNeutral Company across all our offices
Winner Law Society of England and Wales’ Excellence in Social Responsibility Award 2007
As an international law firm, we are subject to a variety of developing regulatory, statutory and ethical requirements. As leaders in our profession, we have a responsibility to maintain the high standards expected not only by clients but also by society at large in all the jurisdictions in which we practise.
Our approach to managing risks in this environment reflects these expectations and our high demands on ourselves. We have global risk management personnel, including a partner in every office and an internal risk and compliance team that continually monitors the risks we face (eg money laundering, conflicts of interest, insider dealing and economic sanctions). We have in place policies, procedures and guidance notes to assist all our lawyers in giving independent advice of the highest quality.
Does our commitment to being socially and environmentally responsible affect the advice we give and the clients we work for? The firm has policies and practices in place to ensure thorough and appropriate verification is conducted before accepting a client. The firm considers such processes to be rigorous. We do not have any standing procedures, however, instructing us not to act for clients in any particular industry or sector. Each new client is assessed on an individual basis. We ensure we are the right firm for any matter and that the right people in the firm work on any given matter. We do not work with organisations that might result in a threat to the safety of the people who work here.
All new clients must be approved by the relevant sector group leader through an integrated IT client acceptance system. Where there is any doubt about whether a client should be taken on by the firm or whether the firm should act on a particular matter, this may be escalated to the chief executive or senior partners for consideration. They would consider the potential client or instruction in the light of a non-exhaustive set of factors, such as the safety or health of our people; sanctions imposed by nations or non-governmental organisations; other reputational issues for our firm, including the effect on other clients’ views of us; the effect on our own people’s views of us; and our suitability to act. We frequently turn down new work because we consider it unsuitable for some reason.
Whistle-blowing
We have a policy in place whereby personnel can report any perceived departure from the ethical and compliance standards we set ourselves as a firm. This policy is only to deal with any serious wrongdoing and not to undermine the trust we have in each other.