Looking forward: our approach to sustainability

Why is social and environmental responsibility important to us?

Being a successful law firm is often measured by the quality of a firm's client base, the scale of its turnover, its profitability or by the receipt of peer awards. These factors are clearly important and inform the actions and practices in running our business.

But they are not enough.

For us to consider ourselves truly successful, we decided that we should seek to achieve our goals in a way that is responsible and positively beneficial to those involved with, or affected by, our firm.

What has this meant in practice?

To me, it has meant a number of things. First, we make sure, as best we can, that our working practices are efficient and sustainable. It falls to each area of our business to look at the way it works and to see where carbon economies can be achieved. Significant improvements have been made over a number of years on this score, which has enabled us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 4.6 per cent since 2005/2006.

Second, we want to use the considerable talents and energies within the firm at all levels and across our international network to make a real contribution to the communities in which we operate – both the legal communities in which we hope to provide leadership and guidance in key areas, and our local communities in which we can help in all sorts of ways, both directly related to our practice and otherwise. We see this not only as our responsibility but also as a rewarding opportunity: the communities benefit and we know that those working here benefit in participating in the varied schemes that have run for many years now.

So I am particularly pleased to see an increase in the number of people involved in our community and pro bono activities, up from 24 per cent and 25,000 hours in 2006/2007 to 29 per cent of people across the firm contributing over 30,000 hours in 2007/2008.

And that brings me to the final issue. We are striving to do all that we can to make the firm a contented, motivated and diverse group of people, focused on the common goal of achieving the objectives of the firm in a sustainable way that makes them satisfied and proud to be part of the firm. We know that we have further to go on all these issues and that getting there will not be easy. Some of our goals will only be achieved by sustained effort over the longer term. But with the launch of our people strategy, and our new global HR team and global diversity committee I feel sure we will see more progress on this front.

Overall, we recognise there is much to do in embedding and improving the processes in the various offices and regions in which we operate so that our working practices best ensure sustainable development. Given the size and structure of some of these offices, the speed at which such policies may be implemented may vary. But we are committed to making the necessary changes and it is evident that there is the will, enthusiasm and means within the firm, at all levels, to achieve these goals. This report is a step along the way.

In overseeing the production of this report, it was evident that, while there are many challenges to tackle, the firm makes a great number of really positive contributions in many areas, over and above continuing to provide a good service for its clients. This is through the hard work and commitment of the people who work here and it makes me proud to work with them. I hope that they are proud of themselves.

We hope you enjoy reading it!

John Blain
Partner responsible for CSR, chair of our environmental working group, member of our CSR strategy group and of the CSR Working Group of the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe

John Blain, partner