Managing our impact on the wider community

CSR: community investment

Our primary themes are enterprise, improving academic attainment and civic engagement, free access to legal advice for those who would otherwise be unable to afford it and support for the arts.

Here are some examples of how we try to support our local community:

Support for young people

We have a long history of supporting young people in communities local to our London office. 

• Hackney Schools Mentoring Programme - providing volunteers to support teenagers from our nearest borough
• Reading and Number Partners Scheme - playing our part in the literacy and numeracy curriculum of a local primary school
• The Brokerage Citylink - CVs, career planning and workshops on what it's like to work in the City
• Centrepoint - funding and volunteer support for an innovative collaboration project between Centrepoint and an arts intervention charity, Streetwise Opera
  

Support for community groups

Where possible we try to align our support with existing local and national government strategies for community development and regeneration.  Here are just some examples of organisations receiving recent or ongoing support:

• East London Business Alliance - through our membership of ELBA we provide advice and support to a range of charities, small business and social enterprise operating in the boroughs close to our London office
• Hackney Credit Union - legal advice to establish the new Credit Union, playing a small part in the anti-poverty strategy of the London Borough of Hackney
• HBV Enterprise - legal advice to a charity encouraging the development of small business and social enterprise in London
• Citizenship Foundation - legal advice to a charity that helps young people to understand the role of legal and parliamentary institutions
• Islington Law Centre - legal advice to clients of the law centre, who would otherwise be unable to access justice or legal redress

Support for charities

Our firm supports a number of initiatives to encourage direct charitable giving. 

• Charity of the year - selected each year via staff nomination. In 2007 the firm's employees raised over £100,000 for NSPCC to end cruelty to children. In 2008 we are working with The Rainbow Trust and aim to raise even more than 2007
• Payroll giving - employees enrolled in the firm's scheme contribute over £84,000 p.a. to 170+ charities
• Matched giving - employees taking part in charitable fundraising events can apply for match funding from the firm
• Central Charitable Fund - the firm provides a fund of money each year that can be divested to causes that correspond with our key themes

Support for arts and heritage

Corporate support for the arts can be critical in a competitive funding environment and where organisations find it difficult to expend resource on professional support.

• Arts & Business - the firm is a member of the national brokerage, helping to target the business community's support for the arts
• Donmar Warehouse - funding 200 inner-London drama students through creative writing workshops at one of the UK's most innovative theatres
• National Theatre - corporate member
• Hackney Empire - corporate member
• National Museum of Warsaw - legal advice relating to the acquisition of new works of art
• Theatre Venture, Newham - professional advice on best practice in human resources
• St Paul's Cathedral Foundation - membership of the foundation supporting the restoration of the symbol of the City of London
• The Place - legal advice to a London-based contemporary dance charity

firm wins gold award for its payroll giving scheme