Corporate social responsibility has come of age. Everybody is embracing it, from magic circle firms to sole practitioners, all trying to be considerate neighbours, treat others with respect, reduce fuel consumption, recycle waste materials, participate in the community and adopt other responsible behaviours.
CSR is now so embedded in law firm culture, in fact, that it has become the umbrella term for all the socially and environmentally responsible activities the profession has been doing for years. And it is here to stay, despite plunging profits and soaring job losses in the legal sector.
David Gollancz, CSR lead partner and competition and European regulatory group partner at City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse, describes his own firm’s philosophy thus: ‘Pro bono, charity and community work has always been a part of FFW. It took a participation freak like me to pull it all together and call it CSR.’
Gollancz says that, from the day he formalised the firm’s CSR programme, he wanted colleagues to recognise that it was not a ‘bolt-on’, but a core part of what the firm does. ‘It cannot be subject to the vagaries of the market, something we can drop when the economy gets tough. Neither is it a counterbalance to the "red in tooth and claw" of the firm’s commercial activities. It’s part of the fabric of what we do, like our monthly partner lunches or our five-a-side football team.’
There certainly seems nothing half-hearted about FFW’s commitment to its CSR programme. Over 50 of the firm’s lawyers are involved with various projects at Queen Mary, University of London, including working at its legal advice centre and providing free legal advice to the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. The firm funds the FFW essay prize for second-year law students and has donated computers and items to the college’s Pink Law initiative. FFW’s lawyers are also actively engaged in a numeracy scheme at a local school, support community projects and events, and participate in fundraising for charities.
Outside London the profession generally is similarly proactive. ‘Participation is key,’ says Jeanette Harwood, chairwoman of the CSR committee and head of regulatory services at Leeds firm Walker Morris. ‘CSR is about rolling up your sleeves, grabbing a shovel and getting down and dirty. It is about bringing the firm and the community closer together by working to a common goal. It’s a win-win: a break from the office, a chance to see colleagues in a new context and a way of giving something back. It is never enough just to write out a cheque.’
Building community relations through participation, rather than donation, Harwood says, also insulates CSR from the credit crunch. ‘The harsh economic climate hasn’t led to a diminution in our activities, but we have had to think more holistically. We recently helped to coppice trees in a nature reserve, for example, a traditional forestry skill that none of us had tried before.’
In common with other firms with a full CSR programme, Walker Morris is active in an impressively diverse range of areas. Its lawyers work pro bono for a breast cancer charity, a hospice and a charity that sends children from underprivileged backgrounds on camping holidays. The firm sponsors local arts, including the ‘phenomenally popular’ schools charity calendar competition, and is involved with numerous community projects – from a dragon boat race to the Prince’s Trust, to helping build a path for wheelchair users at a local attraction.
Many firms would count their work in making their companies more environmentally aware and active as part and parcel of their CSR work, and this area has had much attention.
At City firm Simmons & Simmons, green action is all part of achieving CSR goals, according to senior partner David Dickinson. ‘We were the first international law firm to achieve carbon neutral status across all our offices worldwide,’ he says, ���an achievement we are determined to sustain.’ But community engagement is central to the London office’s programme of CSR activities – the firm’s solicitors mentor students at Tower Hamlets College, a culturally diverse institution with some 9,000 sixth form and adult students, and the firm has been running an evening clinic at the Battersea Legal Advice Centre since 1990. It also promotes London’s cultural life by supporting the City Music initiative and by buying and displaying the work of young artists.
‘Diversity is key to our CSR policies and applies equally to our colleagues,’ says Dickinson. ‘Our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender network, created in 2006, was one of the first within a City law firm.’
His firm’s green credentials are further enhanced by its membership of the Green500 group, Mayor of London Boris Johnson’s initiative to encourage companies to adopt eco-friendly measures to reduce their carbon footprints.
City firm Herbert Smith, another member of the group, this year won the gold award for improving its waste management and recycling programme and for helping its staff reduce their environmental impact while at work. Herbert Smith, among other CSR activities, also participates in the mayor’s Heart of the City scheme, giving pro bono advice to qualifying companies.
But bigger law firms do not have a monopoly on CSR, insists Bristol-based sole practitioner Janis Purdy. A member of the Legal Sector Alliance, a group that works collaboratively to counter climate change by reducing members’ carbon emissions, Purdy describes sole practitioners as ‘natural born’ proponents of responsible environmental and social practices. ‘We don’t have the publicity machines to shout about it,’ she says, ‘but working from home keeps our carbon footprints small. It also makes giving pro bono advice or getting involved with local projects a natural and neighbourly thing to do.’
Sole practitioners are involved in a huge range of CSR projects, from a conservation society to a children’s hospice to a legal advice centre, she says – it’s not just about being green.
Lawyers and law firms seem committed to a policy of CSR, that much is clear – but doesn’t it cost them hours, which equals money? Don’t lawyers have enough to do with their time?
Mark Day, practice manager at 38-partner Kent firm Thomson Snell & Passmore, acknowledges that there is a cost to CSR and, indeed, to charitable giving. The firm supports two hospices through the year and donates to other local charities as the need arises. The personal injury team volunteers at a nearby facility run by brain injury charity Headway. And the firm gives pro bono advice and training to local citizens’ advice bureaux.
‘All these good works don’t cut the mustard with clients,’ Day says. ‘They don’t give us their accounts because of our CSR work. Our motivation is more philosophical, one of giving something back to the community as responsible professionals. We accept responsibility for the impact of all our activities on clients, staff, communities and the environment and aim to manage our business processes to produce a positive impact on society.’
Ian Hopkins, a solicitor and managing director of another Kent practice, 54-partner Warners, concurs with Day’s ‘philosophical’ attitude to CSR. He says Warners is very conscious of its standing as a ‘local firm’ that has been providing legal advice to local people for more than two centuries. ‘As such, it would be wrong to turn our back on the community – we have a broader role to play that is not strictly commercial.’
Warners chairman Bill Wass adds: ‘Warners is fundamentally about people. How could a company that employs locally and serves the community on a corporate and private level not be keen to help generate positive social outcomes?’
To this end, the firm is involved at every level in supporting charitable, arts and sporting activities. The charities include the Tunbridge Wells Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Normandy Veterans Association and the Kent Wildlife Trust. The firm sponsors three rugby clubs, two orchestras, a choir, an arts festival and a horticultural society. ‘Something for everyone,’ says Hopkins.
Warners staff are also encouraged to participate on an individual level in local charity events – from a half-marathon for leukaemia research to the world’s biggest coffee morning on behalf of Macmillan cancer support nurses. ‘It raises our profile, which makes good commercial sense,’ says Hopkins, ‘but it is also our chance to give something back.’
Toby Shillito, a director of charity Business in the Community (BITC), which describes itself as a ‘membership organisation that mobilises business for good’, says there can be a profit motive, a way of turning good works into hard cash, but only if CSR is an integral part of the business strategy.
‘Clients don’t give you their account just because of your CSR activities – they are looking first and foremost for legal expertise and track record. But if it was a choice between two equal law firms and you could show the ethical and environmental standards expected of you while your rival could not, then you would probably get the business.’
There are other business benefits, too, he says. ‘CSR encourages employee engagement, which is key to formalising and managing responsibilities to people, clients, suppliers, communities and the environment. There is also strong evidence that jobseekers place great importance on the ethics and values of the firms they apply to.’
In June this year, BITC released its annual Corporate Responsibility Index, a voluntary benchmarking tool that measured the relative CSR performance of 141 businesses, including law firms. National firm Eversheds was one of the top five improvers across the whole index, while magic circle firm Linklaters and national firm DLA Piper also did exceptionally well. The judges praised the firms for effective stakeholder engagement, for having the processes in place to identify and manage risk, and for having the data to demonstrate improvements in environmental and social performance over the last year or two.
The business case for CSR becomes even stronger in an economic downturn, argues the Law Society. ‘Environmental responsibility can significantly cut costs through energy efficiencies, reduced consumption of resources – using less paper and water, for example – and cutting back on travel,’ says the society’s head of corporate responsibility, equality and diversity, Pat Corcoran. ‘Even where some initial expenditure is required – for improved insulation, maybe, or better software – the payback periods can be remarkably quick. Economic and environmental sustainability are directly linked.’
Anecdotal evidence regarding the effect of recession on pro bono work is inconclusive. On the one hand, people claim pro bono work has diminished with the downsizing of law firms. On the other, some claim pro bono has increased as lawyers, with less commercial work on their desks, have more time to devote to it.
Corcoran says: ‘We won’t really know [the true situation] until we have the results of research commissioned by the Law Society. [We do know that] you can never afford to damage your reputation, least of all in a recession. CSR can help build and strengthen relationships with key clients when their business is most valued – in times of downturn.’
But national law firm Pinsent Masons has already analysed the results of its own survey into businesses’ commitment to CSR in the economic downturn.
Kate Fergusson, CSR manager and a solicitor in the firm’s Leeds office, reports that 91% of the 200 companies (including law firms) surveyed intend to carry on their CSR efforts regardless of the recession, but she adds that this may have as much to do with self-interest as philanthropy. ‘CSR can be good for your bottom line. Building a reputation as a responsible business sets you apart from your rivals, which is crucial now that consumers and employees are increasingly looking to buy from and work for ethical businesses.’
Jennifer Zerk, a former lawyer, is now a consultant working with law firms and others to help them develop Osound and forward-looking’ CSR policies.
She says lawyers are ‘pretty good’ on basic CSR issues relating to the mechanics of running a large organisation, but could do much more in respect of diversity. ‘Most large city firms still have a pretty woeful record when it comes to keeping and promoting their female and non-white talent,’ she observes.
She also points to the need for more work on the precise relationship between CSR and legal ethics: ‘Something that very few lawyers have grappled with yet is what CSR means for how you actually go about the business of lawyering – what kind of advice you give for example, and what kinds of clients you take on. In other words, what does it mean to be a "socially responsible lawyer"?
‘It’s difficult because the relationship between CSR and legal ethics is not very clear. We can agree, though, that once a law firm has taken on a client it has an obligation to act in that client’s best interests.So it’s really important for lawyers to keep abreast of what is happening in CSR. CSR issues can take hold so fast – look at all the work done recently in relation to issue like child labour and anti-corruption. Just taking a "business as usual" approach to advising corporate clients may not be goodenough if the client then ends up on the wrong side of an ethical debate, with the result that the client’s reputation suffers.’
The ‘next big issue’, says Zerk, will be tax avoidance and whether companies pay their fair share. She adds: ‘The issue of how corporations approach their taxation obligations is likely to get a lot of media and campaign attention before too long. I am not talking about tax minimisation here or taking advantage of legitimate tax incentives – I am talking aboutconcocting highly artificial corporate structures and transactions with the express purpose of avoiding tax.
‘This is an area that is directly relevant to lawyers, of course. Unlike issues like bribery or child labour, tax avoidance is an area where lawyers do actually get their hands dirty. It it becomes a big CSR campaign issue, you can expect questions to be raised about the role of legal and financial advisers [as well as clients] and whether they too have acted "responsibly".
The argument that lawyers are just neutral advisers, without moral responsibility for what their clients do, may not wash.’She concludes: ‘Lawyers need to start approaching these issues with more care, and maybe take more of a stand – not just because of the implications for clients, but also because of the risk that their complicity could rebound on the whole profession.’
Local government lawyers
CSR is not just for lawyers in private practice. Solicitors in local government are also volunteering for the good of the community.
The lawyers at Scarborough Borough Council are the country’s first local authority legal team to become involved in the Lawyers in Schools twinning scheme. The scheme, run by the Citizenship Foundation, a charity that encourages individuals to play a fuller and more effective role in society, puts practising and trainee lawyers into the classroom. The lawyers’ role is to work with young people to develop their understanding of the law.
The Scarborough lawyers, who have been involved in the scheme since the beginning of 2008, use specially written materials covering issues such as discrimination, intellectual property, human rights, youth justice, and consumer and employment law. The sessions take place at Whitby Community College in the nearby North Yorkshire seaside town. They happen during normal class time and are tailored to fit around what the students are currently working on.
Solicitor Lisa Dixon, legal services manager at Scarborough Borough Council, says: ‘The legal team, which includes two trainees, is loving every minute of it. It’s a chance to interact with young people from a background that’s very different from the traditional lawyers’ background.
‘The team members, who are mostly quite young, are developing a new confidence outside the comfort zone of the office. It’s a great bonding exercise, too, cooperating on an unfamiliar venture in an unfamiliar environment. And it’s fun – sometimes hilarious.
‘We’re proud to be the first local government legal team to become involved in Lawyers in Schools. But perhaps that’s what you should expect from Scarborough. The European Commission, earlier this year, named us the Most Enterprising Town in Europe 2008, despite competition from Finland’s Helsinki, Liege in Belgium and Spain’s second biggest port, Valencia. We won the accolade after first becoming the Most Enterprising Town in Britain 2008.
‘For the future, we plan to continue working with Lawyers in Schools, although budgets are restricted and it costs us money to participate. It’s a worthwhile scheme, both for the school children and for us, and the team is committed to making it work.’
- Contact Ruth Cohen at the Citizenship Foundation on 020 7566 5038 or ruth.cohen@citizenshipfoundation.org.uk for more information.
No comments yet