Advising clients on corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues should become an everyday matter for corporate lawyers, European lawyers' representative body has said.

In a guide issued last week, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) said that it was time to change the perception that responsibility for advising on CSR does not fall to the profession.

'There is no other professional who both has such ready access to EU boardrooms, and enjoys legal privilege,' it said.

The guide said lawyers should make company management aware that CSR is an issue with which they have to deal and warned that a failure to do so because of ignorance could lead to a negligence claim.

CCBE president Helge Kolrud said: 'CSR is widely accepted today as a vital part of corporate life.

The CCBE intends to play a leading role in the promotion of CSR by ensuring that lawyers understand its importance when advising clients.'