Corporate Social Responsibility

What is corporate social responsibility?  |  Our targets and performance
Our awards  |  Recent news | Our achievements in 2007 | What our community partners say  |  What our people say

"We take CSR very seriously. We believe in living our core values and investing in society - by giving something back we are helping to shape a better future for our communities, whether local or global . Our CSR portfolio is an achievement everyone in the organisation is very proud of - and is evidence that our CSR commitment is real and sustained."

- Nigel Knowles, Joint CEO

What is corporate social responsibility (CSR)?

CSR describes the behaviours of an organisation that go beyond basic legal compliance. It encourages full awareness of the economic, social and environmental impacts of an organisation’s activities and encourages businesses to take these impacts into account across their operations.

We rank amongst a growing number of global organisations that have chosen to take CSR beyond a basic self-monitoring process to proactively bring benefit to the wider community. Why? Because global organisations of our stature have the skills, resources and presence to make the most significant impact at both a global and local levels.

Our strategy of bringing benefit to others also has an extremely positive effect on our own business. The diverse initiatives we support strengthen our relationships with the communities we serve whilst presenting unique opportunities to develop our skills and experience.

CSR is enshrined in our corporate vision and is supported by internal policies such as our staff volunteering day and the allocation of 30 pro bono hours each year to our fee earners.

Our CSR initiatives are organised under four platforms – Education, Employability & Enterprise, Pro Bono, People & Communities and Sustainability. Use the links in the left hand navigation list for further details.

Our targets and performance

We are always looking to develop and improve the effectiveness of our CSR programme. To guide us in this process and to inform ourselves and our stakeholders when we achieve our aims, we have set annual community contribution targets. These are summarised in the table below.

Target	2006/7 Baseline	Actual required for 2007/08*
Increase the total community contributions by 10%	£1.833m	£2.016m
Increase CSR hours recorded by fee earners by 25%	8,936	11,170
Increase the number of people involved in separate CSR projects by 10%	45%	50%
Ensure CSR Partners undertake at least 60 hours of CSR recorded time	n/a	60 hours per Partner

* Target periods are July-June

Our awards

Jul 2007	Stand-out Award, CSR Category, FT Innovative Lawyer Awards (Integrated International CSR Strategy)
May 2007	Silver Big Tick Award, Business in The Community UK (DLA Piper and The Prince's Trust: A Perfect Partnership)
Feb 2007	Caring Company Award, Hong Kong Social Services Dept
Oct 2006	Highly Commended, CSR Category, UK National Business Awards
Jun 2006	Best Contribution by a Law Firm, LawWorks UK

 

Recent news

Sunday Times Companies That Count

Good CSR is Good Business at DLA Piper - it's the way we operate. The legal sector is not traditionally known for reporting its impacts, which is why we are especially pleased with our ranking as first-time entrants to Business in the Community's CR Index and our listing in The Sunday Times "Companies That Count".

Encompassing our UK operations, the overall 'bronze' standard of accreditation is a great achievement, particularly given that this is the first year that DLA Piper has participated in the full index. Special recognition should be duly attributed to efforts in the key areas of Environment and Community which each received silver accreditation.

The CR Index is compiled by Business in the Community ("BITC"), an organisation with over 800 business members, which aims to engage and challenge companies to continually improve their impact on global society as a whole through embedding CSR principles in business operations. BITC collates responses to an in-depth annual questionnaire which assesses the extent to which responsible business practice is adopted and integrated into companies in four key areas:

• Marketplace - treating clients and suppliers fairly and with respect and not irresponsibly exploiting market position.
• Workplace - encouraging development and diversity among employees and improving impact on employees' health and well-being.
• Environment - integration, management and measurement of environmental issues.
• Community - how companies manage their activities and create a positive impact in the community
  

Whilst the index results are a measure of success to date, they are also an essential tool for both past reflection and future focus. We will be utilising the results, together with direct feedback received from BITC, to look at ways to drive our continued efforts to improve our impact on global society.

Our long-term ambition is to widen the survey responses to encompass the full extent of our global operations. Standardising methods of data collection across all regions will enable us to realise this ambition gradually over the coming years.


The Prince's Trust's 'Building Better Lives' Initiative

DLA Piper is the lead partner in a signature CSR project called "Building Better Lives". This initiative was launched in June 2006 by The Prince's Trust and gives young people from across the UK the opportunity to pursue a career in the construction and building services industry.

We are thrilled to have played a part in this programme which has helped almost 400 young people find employment, apprenticeships training in this sector. Through our Real Estate and Engineering & Construction Groups, we have been able to introduce a number of our clients to the initiative which has raised in excess of £2 million in received and pledged income.

"Building Better Lives" now has 30 members and patrons from the sector, and is growing on a sustainable level, providing an entirely new income stream from a previously untapped industry sector for The Prince's Trust. Many of the members introduced by DLA Piper are involved with major construction projects such as the 2012 Games, Crossrail and road, school and hospital building – all projects that offer opportunities for young people to gain training and employment.

For more information, please contact Graeme Bradley (graeme.bradley@dlapiper.com), Head of our UK Engineering & Construction Group, or Elaine Radford (elaine.radford@dlapiper.com), Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at DLA Piper.


Our achievements in 2007

Oct 2007	DLA Piper launches the Legal Sector Alliance - Making Business Sustainable in partnership with Business in The Community and the Law Society
Aug 2007	A Tree for Two Cities carbon offsetting scheme is established in Scotland
May 2007	DLA Piper awarded a Big Tick in the Business in the Community Silver Jubilee Awards for our 10-year partnership with The Prince's Trust
May 2007	DLA Piper is a national sponsor of the May Day Business Summit on Climate Change in the UK, hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales
Feb 2007	Al Gore and Senator George Mitchell speak at the DLA Piper Cooling the Planetevent in Sheffield, UK
Jan 2007	Launch of the Global Sustainability Initiative
Jan 2007	Global Environment Week draws participation from all offices worldwide

What our community partners say

"The initiative undertaken by DLA Piper contributes to the progress of cooperation between the business and the non-profit sector."

- Jean-François Mattei, President, La Croix Rouge Partnership

"My gratitude to DLA Piper, who have been stalwart supporters of my Trust for almost 10 years."

- HRH The Prince of Wales, The Prince's Trust

What our people say

"Candidates are drawn to us because of our CSR ethos and I also find that more and more clients expect it of their suppliers."

- Søren Hornbæk Svendsen, CSR Partner Denmark

"Having a clearly defined CSR strategy has helped to build internal relationships and get an ongoing commitment to this type of work."

- Diego Ramos, CSR Partner Madrid