Corporate social responsibility

At Lawrence Graham we recognise our wider obligations to society and the environment.

From our high environmental standards of our offices, to our pro bono legal services and deeply embedded culture of charitable giving, our community commitment is evident every working day. Our people and our clients expect nothing less.

Charity

Supporting our local community and various charities close to our hearts is important to us.

We have a deeply embedded culture of charitable giving.  Each year our staff nominate and vote for a charity partner and undertake fundraising and volunteering activities for them throughout the year.

Our current charity partner is Richard House Children's Hospice, a charity providing care and support for life-limited children and children with complex healthcare conditions and their families.  The core purpose of Richard House Children's Hospice is to accompany families with children and young people with life-threatening conditions or difficult healthcare needs, during their journey through life to death.  The aim is to create positive experiences along the way that become good memories for the future.

We work closely with Richard House which needs to raise £3.1m each year to keep the centre open.

Last year our charity was Fairbridge, a national charity supporting young people aged 13-25.  The young people it supports may have been affected by poverty, addiction, crime, mental health issues, lack of schooling and they have no positive role models.  As a result they often exist on the margins of society.  Through a combination of one to one support and challenging activities, Fairbridge encourages some of the most chaotic young people in today's society to take steps to turn their lives around.

Here are some other examples of LG's charitable activities: 

We funded two KIDS Siblings groups, 'Big Sibs' and 'Little Sibs', and one KIDS Young Carers group to attend activity centres across the UK and take part in a whole host of exciting outdoor activities

Managing partner Hugh Maule completed a charity bike ride from Lands End to John O'Groats to raise fund for Fairbridge

Corporate partner Nick Heather and lawyer Kristian Rogers covered 70.3 miles in the Timberman Half Ironman in New Hampshire, USA to raise money for the Andy Quick Melanoma Re Fund at the Royal Marsden Hospital

A group of nine trainees and a team from our Real Estate group walked a collective 702 miles through the Scottish highlands, in under 24 hours, to raise money for the Scottish Community Foundation

LG volunteers refreshed and improved facilities at charity, Kids' Hayward adventure playground for disabled children in Islington, London

LG employees raised money for Kids through various activities including the Mazda Triathlon, the 5k Santa Run and the London Marathon in addition to social activities such as quiz nights and a cocktail making evening

We also donate the money we would spend on Christmas cards each year to charities, allowing us to do a small bit for the environment at the same time.

Pro bono

Last year our lawyers provided 577 hours of free legal advice.

The value of our pro bono work for The Big Issue alone was in excess of £83,000.  Also for The Big Issue, three of our lawyers have been honoured by the Law Society at the Junior Lawyers Division Pro Bono Awards.

We completed last year a deal for End Child Poverty on its merger of operations with Child Poverty Action Group.  The deal allows Child Poverty Action Group to continue the work of its highly successful campaign - led by End Child Poverty - to eradicate child poverty by 2020.  The merger involved input from our Commerce and Technology, Employment and IP teams.

Other pro bono work includes assisting the Environmental Investigation Agency to draft a Private Members' Bill that aims to criminalise the illegal timber trade in England and Wales and working at Citizen Advice Bureau surgeries.

Environment

We don't just pay lip service to our wider obligations. They are part of every working day at Lawrence Graham and none more so that through the high environmental standards of our headquarters at More London.

Environmental management is close to our heart. In 2008 we were awarded the ISO 14001 accreditation - one of the few law firms to have done so.

With our move to More London in 2007 we ensured that 'green' wasn't just a colour in our logo, and the building incorporates many environmentally friendly aspects. These include:

• Movement detection lighting control - ensuring lights are only on when needed
• Full recycling programme - white paper, plastic cups, aluminum cans, glass bottles, kitchen waste, hazardous waste disposals
• Fair trade and organic products in our Garden Cafe - we are the first law firm to be certified organic by the Soil Association, the world's first organic body
• Regular carbon emissions assessments
• Thermostatic air conditioning controls in all offices - the carbon-friendly approach to temperature control.

Diversity

Diversity is important for Lawrence Graham and our clients. A large proportion of our work is international and it is a benefit to have a workforce that reflects our clients. We want to ensure that our culture values all of our employees as individuals, from a diverse range of backgrounds and that our client approach is consistent with this.

We support our employees and partners with a range of policies, practices and procedures which help to create an inclusive environment where everybody can work to their full potential. We ensure that individuals are selected, promoted, developed and retained on the basis of their individual abilities and merits as well as the firm's requirements. We strive to provide equal opportunities for all of our partners and employees.

We recognise that talent can be drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds and we are involved in activities to try to broaden access to the legal profession such as working with a local college, mentoring their students. We encourage them to focus on their studies and give them an insight into the profession that they would not normally have.

As a firm we monitor our diversity statistics and take part in surveys to ensure that we are performing in line with our peers. For a breakdown of our key statistics please click here.