Legal Business Awards 2010

Freshfields continued to set the agenda for CSR in the legal sector last year, with the release in February of its internationally focused and externally verified CSR report. With the publication of ‘Making a difference around the world’ the firm extended its CSR reporting to cover all of its offices. In so doing, it met a key target set out in its groundbreaking 2006 report.

Corporate Citizenship, which reviewed the document, said: ‘Producing a substantive CSR report, reporting against material global reporting initiative indicators, and having external, independent assurance, marks it out from current practice among other firms.’ Freshfields also turned to the London Benchmarking Group to validate its community and pro bono work, and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management assessed its carbon footprint. The firm was able to report notable success in this area, having made all offices carbon neutral.

The report clearly assessed the extent to which previous targets had been met and there are still areas where there is scope for improvement. Freshfields was unable to provide full data on ethnicity and disability, for example. Its approach to client selection also remains opaque, with the firm saying it has ‘no standing policy on not acting for clients in any particular industry or sector’.

Nevertheless, in showing a willingness to increase transparency and open the firm to criticism, Freshfields has, undeniably, pushed CSR at law firms to a new level.

HIGHLY COMMENDED

CLIFFORD CHANCE

David Childs

Clifford Chance took another important step towards distinguishing itself among the elite of international law firms, when in September 2008 it published its first global corporate responsibility report. The firm already undertook a range of activities related to CSR, but has made important strides to draw these activities together coherently. The report formalised its approach, covering three main elements: its people, its communities, and the environment.

EVERSHEDS

Steven Butts

Eversheds has had a longstanding commitment to corporate social responsibility. This has been exemplified by its record on diversity and, most recently, by the firm’s new London headquarters, which attempts to raise the bar for environmental awareness. The firm also appointed an environmental manager to spearhead its approach of not just offsetting carbon, but reducing it.

GARRIGUES

Antonio Garrigues

Garrigues joined a small but influential group of firms when it published its second annual corporate social responsibility report covering all aspects of its activities last year. The move places Garrigues alongside a select group that are setting the agenda on CSR in the legal world, and it is leading the way in Spain as the only firm to do so.

SIMMONS & SIMMONS

Daniel Winterfeldt

Simmons corporate partner Winterfeldt is the driving force behind the immensely successful InterLaw Diversity Forum for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender networks. The aim is to encourage LGBT diversity and inclusion in the legal sector, and it holds monthly meetings at law firms throughout the City. Its launch event was attended by more than 40 law firms and 30 financial institutions and companies.

TROWERS & HAMLINS

Christopher Munday

The firm has marked itself out for commitment to its local community. Trowers has established a simple but effective scheme that has helped people from the most deprived areas of London prepare for the workplace. This has included work with East Potential, a Tower Hamlets-based organisation, providing 16 work placements each year as part of the Routes To Work scheme.

Award presented by Legal Business