Responsible Business Impact Report 2019/20 Contents 04 Foreword 06 Making an impact together 08 Welcome to our first Responsible Business Impact Report 10 Bringing people together during Covid-19 14 Inclusion 2 26 FEATURE Future First 30 The arts 34 FEATURE The Roundhouse 36 Community engagement 42 Pro bono 48 Acting sustainably, together 50 What we stand for 3 Foreword from our Managing Partner, Shane Gleghorn We’re committed to being a responsible business and taking accountability for our actions. We have high ethical standards and take care of our people. We’re reducing the footprint we leave in nature and engaging with our communities through cultural and charity work. We’re active members of our broader society, of the legal community, and of our clients’ sectors. Whether it’s building an inclusive workplace, reducing our waste or supporting the arts, we’re actively working together to build a better business, and a more sustainable world. 4 5 Responsible Business Impact Report 2019/20 Making an impact, together 6 Making an impact, together 7 Responsible Business Impact Report 2019/20 Welcome to our first Responsible Business Impact Report When we reviewed our corporate social responsibility activities in early 2019, we had in mind that our new programme would quickly become an inherent part of how we work with each other, and with our clients and community partners. I am delighted to be launching our first Responsible Business Impact Report, bringing to life the immense amount of commitment, dedication and enthusiasm that goes into these initiatives and our achievements. We should all take great pride in the work that we do together. This report is an opportunity to celebrate our successes, Alistair Watson | Responsible Business Partner and inspire more people to demonstrate responsibility towards each other and those we work with. 8 In this report we wanted to share some of our initiatives, collaborations and achievements, which have helped shape our commitment to be a responsible business over the last 18 months. As a law firm, we’ve always had high ethical standards, but it’s the pride in taking care of our people and our clients that differentiates us, and what everyone talks about. Our ethical standards include formalising plans and ambitions to reduce the footprint we leave in nature, and engaging with our communities Dan Harris | Head of Responsible Business through cultural and charity work. Our Responsible Business programme supports our wider business objectives and Over the last twelve months especially, it was those of our clients. It makes us the firm we important for us to continue supporting our are for our people and the communities in communities and the arts at a time when which we work. It provides a clear direction they needed it most. The Taylor Wessing for the vision we have for our future, together. Photographic Portrait Prize entered its 13th year and with it came the exciting Making a difference challenge of looking for new ways to We focus on five key areas that matter to support artists and showcase their talent us most and where we believe we can through a virtual exhibition. truly make a difference: inclusion, arts, New relationships in the arts were also community, pro bono, and environment. established with the National Portrait Gallery Like everything we do, these areas of responsible through our support of the ground-breaking focus are interconnected. They work best when Hold Still project, and also with the we bring our activities together to maximise the Roundhouse supporting young creatives. impact and the difference we can make. Looking ahead So, for example, our pro bono work aligns to our inclusion plans, the arts and our environment We will continue to look for more ways we can goals. The same is true for our community positively impact our society and our environment. engagement, volunteering and fundraising. We will never compromise on equality or in our efforts to raise awareness of the important issues Recognition where we can make a difference. Thinking and We’re particularly proud of the recognition acting sustainably is of continued importance we’ve received for innovation, inclusion and in the years to come. We look forward to sharing wellbeing, the increase in the representation our progress with you and we hope in sharing our of women in our partnership and the growth achievements over the last 18 months, we can in pro bono activity this year. engage and inspire others. 9 Responsible Business Impact Report 2019/20 Bringing people together during Covid-19 10 Bringing people together during Covid-19 Wendy Tomlinson | Talent Director Martin Lewis | Chief Financial & Operating Officer It has always been important to us to support our people and nurture our collaborative culture. The past 10 months have really emphasised the priority to listen to our people and their needs more than ever. Organisations need to recognise that everyone’s individual circumstances are different. Only then can you equip people to do what they do best, and in a way that works for them, we’ve moved on from the mindset of having one size fitting all, and businesses can achieve better results with their people and their clients as a result, while also ensuring a healthy work life balance. 11 Responsible Business Impact Report 2019/20 Supporting the heroes of 2020 Connecting our communities Staff at the University of Liverpool needed more There have been some really fantastic initiatives materials to produce PPE. Our donation of and opportunities to work on more compassionate materials enabled the production of more than issues with our clients. At the start of the year, we 15,000 3-D printed protective visors for use by worked with the cab company Ola on their launch healthcare staff in local NHS Trusts and partners. in London and across the UK. We’ve also been working with them to connect senior people in NHS The protective visors, which use a hybrid design trust so that they could use their fleet of vehicles approach with a laser cut top section and a to support getting NHS people working on the 3-D printed bottom section, were developed in frontline, who don’t drive, to hospitals. conjunction with NHS staff at local Trusts. With train lines out of service during the peak of the pandemic, we opened our London office car park providing free spaces to support key workers with more convenient and safe means of travel to and from the city. Our relationship and continued work with the University of Liverpool is incredibly important to us. Key workers are essential We connect our clients to our to tackling this pandemic, network all the time, but this and we’re pleased we could situation shows the real value support them and the people can bring when working University of Liverpool through together beyond the legal this essential project. services we can provide. Saleem Fazal Laurence Lieberman Partner and Head of our Liverpool office Partner and Chair of our Wellbeing Network 12 Bringing people together during Covid-19 Supporting our students Creative workshops and future lawyers Looking for new ways to keep everyone’s spirits The pandemic was a particularly stressful period up became a fun challenge with our people for students, and for our future trainees. It was contributing ideas for coming together and to combat potential loneliness or isolation. We important to do as much as we could to support couldn’t have done this as successfully without them during this time. Delaying our vacation our newest charity partner, the Roundhouse. schemes was not an option. All of our people enjoy They helped us host virtual creativity workshops premium access to the wellbeing app Headspace allowing our people to learn new skills and and so, we extended this to our future trainees rediscover their creative sides. as another way of looking after them before they joined us in September. Access to advice from Supporting our community our in-house GPs and partners move services on-line wellbeing specialists We provided additional support to Future First Understandably, our people had many concerns to develop its ‘Future Me’ eight-week virtual and questions with regards to the virus and the mentoring programme. This project provided Year implications that it may have on their family members, so we asked our in-house GP Dr 11 and 12 students, who were unsure about their Samina Showghi and wellbeing consultants to future with personalised guidance from relatable host webinars on the physical and mental health role models, helping them to make confident and impact. These provided reassuring insight into informed decisions about their next steps. We also the coronavirus pandemic, expert advice and the provided funding to our friends at Opening Doors opportunity for our people to ask questions. London to help transition their befriending service to an online format. Family matters Prioritising the homeless has The pandemic has caused challenges for many never been so important caregivers and working parents who were tasked with caring, home schooling and juggling work Supporting our local community has always been simultaneously. Firstly, we understood that parents a priority to us. We volunteer each year, and at were struggling with how to explain coronavirus to Christmas time especially, at our local homeless their children, so we worked with Parental Choice charity St Mungo’s in London. When the UK went to provide seminars to help guide parents through into official lockdown in March, we donated the pandemic. We also created a dedicated supplies from our staff restaurant to ensure they intranet page to connect and support our working were supported during this important time of need.