As one of the leading global business law firms, we enable the world’s top companies, financial institutions and governments to achieve their objectives, and to do so within the legal frameworks of the countries in which they do business.
One of our key responsibilities is to provide our clients with consistently sound legal advice – advice that helps them solve their most complex and important business issues.
That is not the firm’s only responsibility. As an employer, we need to look after our own people. As an enterprise, we have responsibilities towards our suppliers and local communities. In the way we run our business, we have a responsibility to manage our impact on the environment.
It is clear that addressing these responsibilities properly must be part of everyday life at Linklaters.
As a result, we do not think our corporate responsibility (CR) goals should be separate from our vision: to be the leading premium global law firm. We think the goal of CR is to achieve that vision in a responsible way.
This concept of CR is not a new one for us. As lawyers we have always sought to perform our professional duties responsibly in our relationships with our clients, colleagues and the wider communities in which we and our clients do business.
Almost a decade ago we were the first law firm to commit 1% of our partners’ global pre-tax income to charity. Four years ago, we also introduced a paid day a year for all staff to volunteer as part of our community investment programme. Recently, we engaged more than 150 people from around the firm in the debate about our responsibilities to our clients and the wider market.