Community investment is not just about corporate giving. We believe our global community investment strategy should reflect who we are and make the best use of our skills. So we focus on promoting achievement, enterprise and access to justice, in neighbourhoods near our offices.
One of the most useful things we can give to society is our legal knowledge, in the form of pro bono work. Much of this work is done locally, but because of our size and cross-practice expertise, we can also offer pro bono advice on complex international projects.
We also create partnerships, where each side benefits from the other’s expertise. For example, we work alongside our clients on community projects of shared interest contributing to the bigger team.
In practice
Our commitment
Every year, we commit at least 1% of our partners’ global pre-tax income to our local communities in money, time and in-kind donations. We support more than 60 community partners worldwide in a large number of projects.
Measuring our giving
We use the global London Benchmarking Group model to calculate our community investment to make sure it is given a fair value. In 2007/8, that value came to £3.75 million in London alone.
Pro bono time
In FY2007/8, our lawyers spent over 32,000 hours on volunteering activity through the firm's community investment programme, of which 23,000 hours constituted free legal advice and representation.
A whole office approach
Our global community investment strategy allows each of our offices to tailor its support to address specific local needs. For example, since 2005 our Paris office has worked with an organisation for the unemployed and those on benefits, called Association pour le Droit à l’Initiative Économique (ADIE). Volunteers train ADIE’s staff to respond to legal queries and offer pro bono legal advice directly to entrepreneurs.
Project Shoreditch
In the UK, we have worked with Deutsche Bank, UBS, East London Business Alliance (ELBA) and the Shoreditch Trust over the past three years. The aim? To get volunteers involved in community projects to regenerate Shoreditch, in the London Borough of Hackney.
Working with the Shoreditch Trust helps us know exactly how to make the biggest difference. As a result, we have helped local charities, community groups and voluntary organisations in the area. In total, more than 59 organisations have received support since Project Shoreditch started in 2005. Around 2,200 people have taken part in voluntary work in the area. Of these, 859 were from Linklaters.
Project Shoreditch won the Economic Regeneration category at the 2006 Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards. It also received Business in the Community’s Big Tick Award for Excellence in 2006, 2007 and 2008.