blp lawworks

The difference BLP makes Corporate responsibility report (Spring 2013)

ContentsForeword ............................................................................................................01

Creating a lasting legacy ..........................................................................02

Who we help ...................................................................................................05

Manor Primary School ...............................................................................06

St Hilda’s East Community Centre and Sonali Gardens ..........08

Newham Education Business Partnership .......................................10

Brainwave ........................................................................................................... 14

The A-T Society .............................................................................................. 16

The Brokerage Citylink ............................................................................... 18

Young Enterprise ..........................................................................................20

Working together on community and pro bono projects ..... 22

Our approach to diversity ........................................................................26

Our environmental impact ...................................................................... 28

One of the most rewarding aspects of being at Berwin Leighton Paisner is to witness the firm’s values at work and nothing embodies our values better than our involvement in supporting community organisations working hard to improve the lives of those in need.

Most of us support charities in our individual capacities, but it is also important for us collectively to make a contribution back to society in our business life. We are privileged to be in a position to be able to help others and we have a responsibility to do so. I am therefore proud of the achievements of our Corporate Responsibility programme. I want to thank everyone who has contributed in the past and urge everyone to make any contribution you feel able to in supporting the programme in the future.

Neville Eisenberg Managing Partner [email protected]

Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

We are privileged to be in a position to help others and we have a responsibility to do so.Neville Eisenberg Managing Partner

Foreword

The difference BLP makes /01

of BLP people took part in corporate responsibility activities during working hours last year

33.4%

Creating a lasting legacy


The economic downturn has led to changes in the way that charities and other not-for-profit organisations are funded, and the government is putting increasing pressure on the private sector to “do more” to fill the gap.

In response to this pressure, the more visionary not-for-profit bodies are seeking innovative ways of partnering with the private sector to help them restructure their organisations and reinvigorate their funding streams. Likewise, businesses are looking for new opportunities to work with the not-for-profit sector. This presents BLP with an excellent opportunity to explore innovative and long term interventions with our charity and not-for-profit partner organisations to create a lasting legacy.

At BLP we take great pride in our extensive Corporate Responsibility (CR) programme and we plan to increase our commitment and focus in the coming years. We very much see CR as an integral part of our culture and practice. With this in mind, we have created a CR Forum, chaired by our Head of Finance, Matthew Kellett, to act as a link between the firm’s business strategy and CR activity through:

• developing a clear and relevant set of community engagement activities (including charitable fundraising, community volunteering and pro bono legal work);

• integrating diversity into all aspects of the firm’s operations; and

• managing the environmental impacts of doing business.

We very much see CR as an integral part of our culture and practice.John Lucy HR Director, BLP


Our mid-term aims remain to:• engage our staff in our

wide ranging CR, pro bono, volunteering and community activities;

• create a substantial and, wherever possible, long term impact through the nature and quality of our contributions, tailoring the exact nature of our involvement to the needs of each of our community and charity partners; and

• make a real difference to the charities and communities we support on a day to day basis, to our people and to our clients.

To be able to deliver this vision, focus is key.

Therefore, over the next two to three years we will focus on a small number of community partners with whom we will be able to develop meaningful, multi-faceted

relationships and be creative about how we work together, and where our involvement allows us to make a real and lasting difference. I think you will agree, when you read some of the profiles and quotes, that we are well placed to achieve our objective.

I am immensely pleased to report that last year 33.4% of our people were engaged in our CR programme inside of working hours, whilst many more put in substantial amounts of their own time to support their personal causes. My thanks and congratulations go to everyone who made a contribution last year. If possible, this year, I would like it to be even higher! Partners and staff can get involved in a number of ways including supporting our pro bono initiatives; through active participation in our MAD (Make a Difference) days; getting involved in one of our regular volunteering programmes; or through contributing in some way to our Charity of the Year - Brainwave.

In addition, we will be looking to partner with more of our key clients on initiatives where we have common interests and goals.

We can be very proud of the contribution that the firm has made to society in the past and we look forward, with your help and involvement, to making an even more profound and lasting contribution.

John Lucy HR Director, BLP [email protected]

From left to right: BLP Partner John Bennett playing numbers

games at Manor Primary, HR MAD Day at Bag Books,

Year 6 class from Manor Primary take over our Auditorium,

Young Enterprise students enjoying the view outside our office,

Knowledge Management team MAD Sports Day

Over a third of BLP’s staff participate in our CR programme – that’s a statistic to be proud of.Alison Klarfeld Head of CR

Working together on community and pro bono projects MAD days, volunteering, fundraising and pro bono

Young EnterpriseThe UK’s largest business and enterprise education charity

Newham Education Business PartnershipBuilding partnerships between schools and businesses in Newham

Who we help

BrainwaveBLP’s charity of the year 2012-13, supporting children with developmental delays, brain injuries or genetic conditions

The A-T SocietyBLP’s charity of the year 2011-12, helping and supporting children and families living with Ataxia-Telangiectasia

The Brokerage CitylinkWorking in partnership with City employers to create a pathway to the City for young residents of London’s inner city boroughs

Who we help


Manor Primary School A vibrant learning community in Newham judged by Ofsted to be a “good school with outstanding features”

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St Hilda’s East Community Centre and Sonali GardenA vibrant multi-purpose community organisation in Tower Hamlets catering for all sections of the local community

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How BLP helpsGiven the diverse profile of the children, literacy is a key feature of school life. BLP set up a scheme with the school in 2007 and our volunteers spend time with children on a weekly basis to support their progress, by listening to them read.

In 2008, we launched a second scheme to help children with numeracy skills, by playing numbers games with our volunteers. The firm continues to be involved with the school in a broad range of ways, from sponsoring prize-giving and donating books to the library, to sponsoring and providing volunteers to run the Young Enterprise Primary Programme, hosting annual visits for Year 6 and subsidising initiatives such as the printing of books of poems written by the children and the school’s annual family pantomime outing. In December 2011, we arranged for the school choir to give a performance of carols at a BLP client Christmas reception.

We are always pleased to find other ways to help Manor Primary - for example, our Head of CR, Alison Klarfeld, joined the Board of Governors in 2008.

Tell me aboutBLP has been with us for over five years and they remain the only business that provides support in the way they do. To start with, we had volunteers coming in to help with our children’s reading and, since then, the team at BLP has found many other ways to develop the relationship.

For example, our Year sixs go to BLP’s offices for a ‘world of work’ experience, where they learn about the multitude of different roles they could do later in life. Some wanted to become lawyers as a result. As part of that visit we also ask the children to make a presentation to an audience of BLP people, which is taken very seriously. Some of the children don’t think of themselves as living in London, so it’s great to be able to show them a different part of the capital. They also like to stand on London Bridge, just outside the BLP office, where they try to work out what the people walking past do for their jobs.

BLP does so much for us. We’ve had their lawyers in to run sports days and they also sponsor our Young Enterprise projects, as well as providing the prizes that we give out at speech day. They’ve also helped to subsidise the cost of school trips, which is a great help to our parents.

Manor Primary School

06/ The difference BLP makes


BLP provides our children with opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to experience.

Manor Primary School is located in West Ham, in the heart of the London Borough of Newham. The school’s most recent OfSted report highlighted how the school takes pride in demonstrating equality in opportunity: 65% of the 360 pupils speak English as a second language and a total of 53 languages are spoken by children and members of staff. 80% of children come from different ethnic backgrounds.


The difference it makesThe literacy and numeracy schemes are not just about encouraging children to learn to read and do maths. The BLP volunteers also give the children a chance to meet adults who have different life experiences and different outlooks from the people they usually interact with. Simply put, the children really, really, enjoy spending time reading and playing numbers games with the volunteers from BLP and I think the volunteers enjoy finding out about our children too.

BLP provides our children with opportunities that they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to experience. They show them what their lives could be like and give them a chance to think about personal aspirations.

BLP volunteers give so much time to the school and show that they are genuinely interested in what goes on and what we do. They really care about Manor Primary and all of our children, parents and staff really benefit from their involvement.

Kate McGeeHead Teacher, Manor Primary School [email protected]

BLP has been with us for over five years and they remain the only business that provides support in the way they do.


reading sessions involving 24 BLP volunteers and 37 Manor Primary pupils last year

179BLP Risk & Compliance Administrator Lucy

Chambers with her Manor Primary reading partner

Tell me aboutSt Hilda’s relationship with BLP has been so successful and gone so well it is almost difficult to say when it began! It has become an integral part of our organisation’s work and something we seem to have enjoyed and benefited from for a lot longer than the actual five years that the link has existed.

BLP was introduced to us by LawWorks, the legal advice charity, and offered to set up a new legal advice clinic, which replicated the one we already had at our main building in Shoreditch. Sonali Gardens is in the south west part of Tower Hamlets, so having BLP running a clinic there now means that we can provide help to all of the Borough’s residents who need it.

BLP also organised students from Queen Mary University to take part in the clinic. The project has been very impressive - the service provided to our clients is effective and we’ve had a lot of great feedback.

St Hilda’s East Community Centre and Sonali Gardens



How BLP helpsIn October 2007, BLP established a weekly free legal advice clinic for the community living in the area surrounding Sonali Gardens. The clinic is open to the wider public as well as day care users. Our lawyers provide support on such matters as housing, benefits, small claims and debt.

The project is supported by the pro bono legal advice charity, LawWorks, which provides training to our volunteers on all aspects of social welfare law. As well as over 30 BLP lawyers who attend the clinic on a rota basis, we are assisted by volunteer law students from Queen Mary University, who benefit from seeing how the law works in practice.

We also continue to support the Older People’s Project run by St Hilda’s, arranging activities for the service users, many of whom are living in isolation, and organising one-off events such as day trips out and an annual Christmas party.

Last year, our clinics helped 534 people get help that they would not otherwise have been able to afford. BLP’s support is particularly important in this climate as demand is increasing.

St Hilda’s East is a thriving community centre in Shoreditch, which provides educational, social and recreational activities for a multi-cultural population of all ages.

Sonali Gardens Day Centre is at St Hilda’s second site in Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, one of the most deprived parts of London. Sonali Gardens provides culturally appropriate day care for Asian adults and elders with disabilities.


We also greatly appreciate that BLP donates to us half of the money their staff raise from the annual London Legal Support Trust sponsored 10K walk.

BLP also supports our Older People’s Project based at our main community centre site. Most of our service users are over 75 years old, housebound, with few or no friends and family and they can become very isolated as a result. The BLP team has been fantastic – older people may not sometimes be seen as being a glamorous group to work with, especially in trendy Shoreditch! BLP has arranged for our older users to visit places like the Tower of London and go down the River Thames on a boat trip, as well as organising Christmas parties for them. Our elderly members really enjoy having the chance to do something a bit different and I think the BLP volunteers do as well.

The difference it makesBLP’s support has had a tremendous impact on a great many individual lives. Many of our service users and other local residents have become more anxious about financial matters over the last six months and, without BLP, we would not be able to provide proper free legal advice to our community. Last year, our clinics helped 534 people get help that they would not otherwise have been able to afford. BLP’s support is particularly important in this climate as demand is increasing. It is very difficult to get funding for advice and we would struggle to keep the clinics open without their help. The firm also funds a sessional advice support worker who supports their volunteers at the clinic.

We also greatly appreciate that BLP donates to us half of the money their staff raise from the annual London Legal Support Trust sponsored 10K walk. The firm is constantly looking for other ways to help us and we are extremely pleased that Alison Klarfeld, BLP’s Head of CR, now sits on our Board of Trustees. She brings knowledge of the legal world and provides us with valuable governance support.

Rupert WilliamsDirector, St Hilda’s East [email protected]


St Hilda’s relationship with BLP has been so successful.

The difference it makesOur relationship has really snowballed. The link has been a brilliant opportunity for Manor Primary School and BLP has really made the most of it. Reading is fundamental to the development of young people, but raising aspirations is just as important.

BLP is a good example of how a partnership between a company and a community can work and develop. We’re here to try to make the process as easy as possible and BLP shows confidence in what we do. The amount of time that BLP spends working to get the most out of the relationship is very positive, as it builds the confidence of our team and we are pleased to be able to talk to other businesses about BLP as a role model.

Marion Faust Chief Executive, Newham Education Business Partnership [email protected]

Newham Education Business Partnership


Newham Education Business Partnership

How BLP helpsBLP’s reading and numeracy schemes with Manor Primary School were set up through NEBP, as was our mentoring scheme for students at NewVIc College, the Newham Sixth Form College in Plaistow, London. Nineteen BLP mentors spend time with A level Law students to help them with their studies and give them an insight about roles in the legal sector and how to better access employment.

Tell me aboutFive years ago, BLP approached us as they wanted to help the community in Newham. They set us the challenge of finding a school they could work with which had straightforward transport links but where they could make a real difference. We settled on developing a relationship with Manor Primary School. This partnership has been very successful.

BLP also support us in other ways. For example, hosting schools for mock interview days and sponsoring the production of a video that we now use to promote reading schemes to other businesses. When they asked us for a programme for older children, we were able to pair them up as mentors for students at NewVIc College. We know that BLP will always try to help us if we need it.

Newham Education Business Partnership (NEBP) has been in existence since 1992. It provides links for employers to 15 secondary and 66 primary schools, all in the London Borough of Newham. NEBP works with over 300 businesses on a regular basis and has organised schools reading volunteer schemes since the late 1990s. It organises over 3,500 work experience placements each year and runs a number of other programmes around employability, interview practice, teacher placements and enterprise days.

BLP is a good example of how a partnership between a company and a community can work and develop.

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Neville Eisenberg Managing Partner

It is rewarding to know our people’s investment makes such a personal difference.

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BLP volunteersChildren helped

Brainwave sponsored bike ride 2012

Tell me aboutIt is inspiring the way that BLP has taken Brainwave under its wing. They really started the partnership with a bang. Just weeks into the relationship during June, BLP took part in the Charity’s Walk for Kids in London Bridge. The entertainment on the night was provided by the BLP in-house band, Real State. After the sponsored walk and quiz prizes, the participants heard an appreciative talk by the mum of Bastion, a little boy on the Brainwave programme.

In July, 49 cyclists from the firm’s London, Reading and Hong Kong offices (and some friends) undertook a 234 mile sponsored cycling challenge from London to Vendôme in the Loire Valley, France. It is wonderful to see so

Brainwave


Brainwave

How BLP helpsAs with all of our charitable partnerships, BLP aims to support Brainwave not just through fundraising, but also through assisting the paid staff and volunteers in learning new skills to strengthen the charity’s ability to gain funding and awareness in the long term.

Since the start of the partnership in May 2012, BLP has run a number of in-house fundraising events including a partners wine-tasting evening, jeans wearing days, and Beat the Board quiz night. BLP also organised a sponsored 234 mile bike ride from London to the Loire and had teams taking part in Brainwave’s annual Walk for Kids and running the Royal Parks Half Marathon for the charity.

Brainwave is BLP’s current Charity of the Year. Through a variety of physical and cognitive therapies, it supports children with developmental delays, brain injuries or genetic conditions. The charity was nominated by BLP partner Vicky Fowler, whose daughter Freya received treatment at Brainwave.

49 cyclists from BLP’s London, Reading and Hong Kong offices undertook a 234 mile sponsored cycling challenge from London to the Loire Valley, raising over £30,000 for Brainwave.

Brainwave


many employees being actively involved in a range of activities and at the time of writing they have raised over £40,000.

In addition to the much appreciated financial contribution, the firm is committed to supporting the staff at Brainwave in their professional development. BLP has arranged for a senior fund raiser to receive some social media training, and sessions on presentation and communication skills are also planned. The Senior Management Team at Brainwave are also hoping to take up the offer of a ‘coaching’ day with BLP providing a facilitator to look at topics such as leadership.

Most recently, BLP has designed and printed our first ever Brainwave Christmas cards for sale in Brainwave’s shops and at the firm. We are looking forward to the relationship continuing to be fruitful and productive, and its effects lasting long after the partnership ends.

The difference it makesThe funds provided by the BLP Charity Partnership will be invested into frontline therapy for children. BLP has requested that we ring-fence the first £30,000 of the funds raised to provide for a new occupational therapist at our South West Centre for a year. This will enable us to see 40 more children every year, providing paediatric physiotherapy, speech, language and occupational therapies and cut our waiting list from six months to four months, with the amount of requests we are currently receiving.

The funds raised above this initial £30,000 will be used to ‘sponsor’ as many individual children as possible, at £3,500 per child, providing a year of assessments and therapy for each child. This support is essential for many families who otherwise would not be able to access the facilities we offer.

Raising funds is always one of the major challenges for any charity. However, the skills we hope to gain for our staff are also very valuable, enabling Brainwave to open new lines of communication and improve public awareness of the work we do, which leads to more funds being raised in the long term. One to one coaching and group facilitation will also help staff work more effectively as individuals and as teams.

Richard Clarke Corporate Fundraising, Brainwave [email protected]

Phil Edge Chief Executive, Brainwave [email protected]

Raising funds is always one of the major challenges for any charity. However, the skills we hope to gain for our staff are also very valuable, enabling Brainwave to open new lines of communication and improve public awareness of the work we do, which leads to more funds being raised in the long term.

Tell me aboutWe are a small charity that supports families with children who suffer from a debilitating genetic disorder, Ataxia-Telangiectasia. There is no cure for A-T. As the condition is rare - affecting only a few hundred people in the UK - and as there are variations in the degree of severity, the illness is often misdiagnosed and wrongly treated. However, what we do know is that everyone with A-T will die young as a result of the condition.

As a small charity, we are dependent on public awareness of our work and we were lucky that one of BLP’s lawyers, Natalie Wardle, had heard about us through a friend who has two children with A-T. She put up a great campaign to get us elected as BLP’s charity of the year and we were very pleased to have been selected.

The relationship with BLP has unsurprisingly included a lot of fundraising, but it has been much more than that. We truly feel that BLP has taken time to get to know us and to find out how they can make a difference.

The difference it makesThis has been a tremendous opportunity. Our charity is going through a period of transition and BLP’s support has given us a sense of security and stability. Indeed, we have been able to make a major investment in research to find a potential cure for A-T as a result of their fundraising. We could never have done this before.

The A-T Society


The A-T Society

How BLP helpsThe Charity of the Year relationship with The A-T Society ran from May 2011 to April 2012. During this time, BLP donated over £50,000 through a number of staff fundraising activities. This represents a quarter of the charity’s annual income and will provide an opportunity for The A-T Society to commission research that will hopefully lead to finding a cure.

BLP has helped the charity, which only has three paid members of staff including a family support worker, through the provision of access to professional help and mentoring. Our staff also support the charity by giving advice. For example, one of our Associate Directors, Marilyn McKeever, appeared in a recent A-T Society newsletter talking about the best way to structure a will to encourage leaving a charitable legacy and we are also working to raise the profile of the charity with our clients.

Although the year-long partnership between the Society and BLP has now ended, the relationship has continued through executive coaching, a joint presentation to the Institute of Fundraising, use of meeting space in BLP’s offices and the trainee legal secretary team providing front of house support at a clinical conference arranged by the A-T Society.

The A-T Society is a charity set up in 1989 that helps and supports those people and families living with Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T). A-T is a rare genetic neurodegenerative disease. It starts in early childhood and affects many parts of the body, causing severe disability and short life expectancy due to complications such as cancer. The A-T Society works to improve quality of life and care and to actively promote research, as well as providing a voice for those who are affected.

BLP is the first corporate we have worked with and the experience has been fantastic.

The A-T Society


BLP is the first corporate we have worked with and the experience has been fantastic. It has provided us with essential personal development training. For example, one of their Learning and Development team coached us in presentation skills, which is invaluable for a fundraiser and gave us the confidence to pitch for more corporate support. The marketing team have helped with the design of materials. The firm also opens doors for us, inviting us along to events with their clients, which gives us the opportunity to talk to potential supporters whom we would never be able to reach under normal circumstances.

BLP has gone beyond simply raising funds. A small charity like ours does not have the capacity to manage a lot of volunteers and so BLP has found other ways to engage with us to add great value to our work. The HR Director, John Lucy, has helped us to resolve some organisational issues, helped plan a Board development day and acts as a mentor to our

CEO. We really value the offer he made to hold our Board Meetings at BLP’s offices. This may seem a small thing, but knowing we have that venue means that we can book travel and hotels well in advance, saving the charity money. Using a quality space actually has a high impact on those meetings – we feel more professional and business-like and have become confident about the future impact the charity will have as a result.

William Davis Chief Executive, A-T Society [email protected]

Suzanne Roynon Fundraiser, A-T Society [email protected]

This has been a tremendous opportunity. Our charity is going through a period of transition and BLP’s support has given us a sense of security and stability.

The twins who inspired the nomination of

The A-T Society as our charity of the year

Part of the workshops we have run at BLP involves students assessing a list of jobs and deciding which ones are most important to society. The debates get rather heated and competitive at times; it is great to see students engaging in the activity but the noise levels can escalate. The volunteers, many of whom are used to arguing their case, were great at helping students break down their argument and encouraging them to articulate their points properly, rather than just loudly! Developing such skills and understanding their importance is a vital part of preparing students for the working world and even in a short period of time you can see the difference; they really started to think about their answers and make some considered responses.

The Brokerage Citylink


How BLP works with The BrokerageOur involvement with The Brokerage dates from early 2011. Since then we have already hosted and provided volunteers for four workshops involving 132 students from schools and colleges in Newham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets and 28 BLP volunteers. We have been very pleased with the programme to date and look forward to developing our relationship.

Tell me aboutOur relationship with BLP is relatively new, having begun in 2011. Both parties were keen to get things going as quickly as possible, so the relationship has grown rapidly. BLP has already hosted four workshops for students aged between 14 and 18.

Volunteers from across the organisation have been keen to get involved, helping students with activities, leading them on tours, giving mock interviews and being interviewed themselves. The response has been fantastic, volunteers have been reliable and engaged with students really well, helping them understand the organisation and giving them an honest insight into what working life is really like.

The Brokerage Citylink is an independent not-for-profit organisation working in partnership with City employers to create a pathway to the City for young residents of London’s inner-city boroughs.

Through their work with local schools and colleges, The Brokerage enables City firms to engage with students aged 14 to 18 with a view to raising their future career aspirations. The organisation also runs internship and direct hire programmes, enabling employers to gain access to a diverse group of talented young people.

We could not run the programmes that we do without the help of companies and firms like BLP. We believe getting students into the workplace at an early age is key to raising their aspirations, helping them understand the opportunities available and how to take advantage of them.


The difference it makesWe could not run the programmes that we do without the help of companies and firms like BLP. We believe getting students into the workplace at an early age is key to raising their aspirations, helping them understand the opportunities available and how to take advantage of them. The workshops we have run with BLP have so far given around 130 students from across six schools the opportunity to gain a valuable insight into the workplace and the skills required to get there.

The impact on students is immediately clear, with students commenting: ‘I really enjoyed today. I’ve learnt a lot of new things about the business world,’ ‘It was very good because it changed a lot of minds about their future,’ ‘Today was a fun day and it has made my ambition to be a lawyer stronger.’

This is a fantastic result in itself, but we know it is only the beginning. The Brokerage aims to continue building on this through continued partnership with schools and businesses like BLP, providing more practical advice, internships and job opportunities so students can make those aspirations a reality.

Abigail Sampson Programme Coordinator, The Brokerage Citylink [email protected]

BLP HR Reward Advisor Chien Ling

conducting mock interviews with A level

students from Tower Hamlets and Newham

schools at a Brokerage Citylink workshop

The workshops we have run with BLP have so far given around 130 students from across six schools the opportunity to gain a valuable insight into the workplace and the skills required to get there. 130

Tell me aboutBLP has been partnering Young Enterprise for five years now. Their committed support offers a wide range of benefits to our charity as BLP generously award us volunteer engagement, in-kind support and their financial contribution.

BLP’s support of Young Enterprise in London has been most keenly felt in its annual hosting of the Company Programme Innovation Awards’ Central London Final and its financial and volunteer support for eight classes of Primary Programmes at Manor Primary School in Newham.

The Final sees the best student companies from across Central London compete for a series of prizes, and ultimately for a place in the London Final. BLP employees organise the event in its entirety - arranging the venue, refreshments, and on-the-day volunteers to help students set up - while experienced lawyers and senior BLP colleagues act as judges during the process.

Young Enterprise


Young Enterprise

How BLP works with Young EnterpriseSince 2007, BLP has sent groups of volunteer staff members and future BLP trainee lawyers (who are still at law school) to local schools to work alongside Young Enterprise staff, helping to deliver a wide range of programmes and acting as business advisers to groups of students taking part in the Company Programme.

We have also hosted the regional finals for Young Enterprise’s Companies Programme competition since 2007, providing judges for the day and we are pleased that, as a result of this, our IT Director Janet Day has been appointed to the Board of Young Enterprise Greater London.

Young Enterprise is the United Kingdom’s largest business and enterprise education charity, having been established in 1963. Every year it helps 250,000 young people learn about business and the world of work in the classroom under the guidance of volunteers from 3,500 companies.

BLP’s help is invaluable to Young Enterprise, providing access to a professional corporate environment.

BLP Partner Michael Anderson judging the stands

at the Company Programme Central London Finals

Young Enterprise


The difference it makesBLP’s help is invaluable to Young Enterprise, providing access to a professional corporate environment in which to host our students for an important part of the YE calendar, while the impact on the students themselves - the key part of any Young Enterprise programme - is evident through the looks on their faces the moment they step into the London Bridge offices: their horizons are widened and their aspirations raised, all thanks to BLP.

The Primary Programme at Manor Primary School offers a great opportunity for some of BLP’s future graduate trainees to volunteer alongside their intense studies. They are trained on one of four programmes for students aged 7 to 11, during an hour-long training session, and then pair up to deliver the programme to a class the following week.

This is brilliant for Young Enterprise: a true time when we are, as we always aim to be, a volunteer-led organisation, bringing people from business into the classroom; and more prosaically saving us from having to staff each and every class ourselves (a process which occasionally incurs an extra cost for freelance help). The students meanwhile are consistently excited and invigorated by the presence of an outsider from ‘the world of work’ in their classrooms, guiding them through a programme tailored to their year group, filled with fun activities and games designed to take them on a journey through simple enterprise skills, society, and the way business works.

Joanne Kelly Corporate Relations Manager [email protected]

250,000young people learn about business and the world of work in the classroom under the guidance of volunteers from 3,500 companies, every year.

185

We sponsored the Young Enterprise Primary Programme being delivered to the 8 classes (4 year groups - 3, 4, 5 and 6) in key stage 2 of Manor Primary Shool - roughly around 185 children. Sixteen BLP pre-trainees delivered the sessions to the students.

Other volunteering and fundraising programmes Each year we:• Support Comic Relief • Enter a team of walkers in the

annual London Legal Support Trust 10km Walk to raise money to support the work of social welfare legal centres in London and the Home Counties, and legal advice charities (raising over £6,300 in 2012)

• Help the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal by organising a rota of volunteer poppy sellers (90 BLP volunteers sold poppies at two locations close to our offices in 2012, raising £3,080).

Working together on community and pro bono projects


Make A Difference daysBLP has run Make A Difference (MAD) days for over five years. Each MAD day project is managed by people from within the firm and involves a group of volunteers taking part in a day with a community group or charity. Participants are given time off to take part, which is usually in addition to the one day allowance per year that the firm gives for volunteering.

Recent MAD days:• Our Projects team volunteered

at Whitechapel Mission, making breakfast for the Mission’s clients

• Members of our HR team spent a day helping to make hand-made books at South London based charity Bag Books, an organisation publishing multi-sensory stories for people with profound learning disabilities

• Our Knowledge Management team organised a sports day at Memorial Park in West Ham for the pupils in year 6 of Manor Primary School

• A group of volunteers from our Corporate team arranged and hosted a River Thames boat trip and lunch in Greenwich for 26 pensioners and staff members from St Hilda’s East Older Person’s Project

• Volunteers from our International and Marketing teams gave a facelift to Shoreditch charity Art for All’s premises, decorating their main work room and office

• Sixty of our trainees took part in a day’s volunteering at local charity Evelina Family Trust which supports the families of children being treated at Evelina Childrens Hospital. Our trainees raised over £1,000 from station collections, cleaned the house and cooked meals for the families staying there.


Pro bono workWe have a pro bono policy and encourage our lawyers to undertake pro bono work of interest to them. By pro bono work, we mean legal advice or representation given to individuals or community groups who cannot afford to pay, and where public funding is not available. We have a pro bono liaison partner in each practice group in the firm, to facilitate the organisation and supervision of the pro bono work we do.

LawWorks Riots helplineWe helped to fund a helpline for victims of the riots in the summer of 2011 and fielded requests for support. For example, our lawyers negotiated with a loss adjuster over an insurance claim made by a disability support worker whose flat was destroyed in an arson attack.

Community groupsWe take on cases referred by pro bono charity LawWorks, acting for community groups and charities on specific issues on which they require pro bono assistance. Our lawyers volunteer to undertake cases involving their own area of expertise.

Free Law DirectThis provides short, initial legal advice in response to questions from not-for-profit organisations. Our lawyers provide advice in areas of their expertise without having to leave their desks.

From left to right: Knowledge Management Team MAD day for

year 6 Manor Primary pupils, International and Marketing team

MAD day at Arts for All, BLP team before the LLST sponsored

walk, Christmas MAD day at St Hilda’s Older People’s Project,

BLP team on LandAid scavenger hunt

As a Foundation Partner of Landaid, BLP makes a charitable donation of £10,000 each year.

Working together on community projects


Other pro bono support Through providing pro bono legal advice, we continue to be active supporters of:

• The Immigration and Asylum and Education teams at Islington Law Centre

• Centrepoint• The British Memorial Garden

Trust UK• The Homeless World Cup• Museum in the Docklands• Commission for Racial Equality

Land AidLandAid is the charity of the property industry and BLP is proud to be a Foundation Partner. As a Foundation Partner, we make a charitable donation of £10,000 each year and also host and support many of their activities.

Our volunteers have recently taken part in two scavenger hunts, raising over £2,000 and entered the CBRE Property Peak Challenge, which involved teams climbing to the top of the Heron Tower, the tallest building in London at the time. The firm also hosted the charity’s 25 year anniversary celebration, with over 100 guests attending and held a breakfast briefing, which helped to raise awareness of LandAid’s work.

we helped 85 clients at 367 client advice sessions at our Sonali Gardens project. 47 BLP lawyers were involved in providing the advice at the clinic and follow up work back at the office.

2012

We helped to fund a helpline for victims of the riots in the summer of 2011 and fielded requests for support.

Diversity

20/ Corporate responsibility

BLP’s approachAt BLP we believe that our goals of always exceeding client expectations and being the most attractive place to work will only be achieved if we recruit, retain, reward and develop our people with regard to their abilities and contributions and without reference to their background, gender, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, political belief or any disability.

To this end, we embrace diversity by promoting and sustaining an open, inclusive and supportive working environment to enable our people to make the most of their particular qualities and skills and to achieve their full potential in line with their abilities and aspirations.

This doesn’t just happen by itself and we have put in place a range of initiatives that are designed to help us continue to reach this goal. Our Diversity Committee has run for over four years and meets regularly to discuss progress. This year, we held a Focus on Diversity month in October which included relevant events and information sharing.

We have a history of commitment to diversity, having established the Adelaide Group in 1997. The Group is a women’s network with over 1,000 members that hosts regular meetings with high powered and inspirational women speakers, including Baroness Valerie Amos and Commander Janet Williams.

We are working towards increasing the numbers of women in senior roles in the firm, in particular at Partner level. We also have a coaching programme in place for our female lawyers, that offers support before, during and after maternity leave and we seek to provide greater flexibility in working patterns for anyone who needs it as a result of commitments at home.

Our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Group was formed in 2009. As well as running networking meetings and events that are attended by our clients, the Group also provides support and a voice for LGBT people within BLP.

Our approach to diversity



Our employment policies and practices are designed to provide a framework which makes our values and expectations clear and delivers fairness and consistency of approach, while at the same time allowing people to be themselves at work. We also place great emphasis on the power of team work and co-operation and the benefits they provide to both the individual and the firm.

We embrace diversity by promoting and sustaining an open, inclusive and supportive working environment.

The difference it makesOur employment policies and practices are designed to provide a framework which makes our values and expectations clear and delivers fairness and consistency of approach, while at the same time allowing people to be themselves at work. We are keen to create a culture of inclusivity and aim to help others to reach their potential.

Valerie Moncur Head of HR, BLP [email protected]

Outside the firm we are keen to encourage people to access the legal profession, who may not otherwise have the confidence to aspire to a legal career. Our partnerships in this area include Legal Launch Pad (Black Lawyers Directory) and Sharing Educational Opportunities, as well as the Pure Potential programme. Most recently, we have signed up to PRIME, the legal profession’s work experience commitment and will be providing 20 work experience places a year to school age students from less privileged backgrounds.

Other work to improve life opportunities for people includes providing work placements to people with Asperger Syndrome, in support of a programme run by the National Autistic Society. We are also actively developing opportunities to create apprenticeships in the firm.



The BLP gender split is 59.4% female and 40.6% male.

59.4%

40.6%


BLP’s impactLike all law firms, we take our responsibility to the environment very seriously and we are keen to reduce the impact of our business wherever possible.

The main ways that we can make a difference revolve around how we use paper and how we manage our buildings.

All of the paper that is used in our printers and photocopiers is approved by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures that we are being supplied from sustainable sources. In addition, our IT systems have an ‘ecoprint’ option, that prints double sided as a default and allows four pages of A4 text to be printed on one A4 sheet. We are also moving towards electronic delivery of invoices, including 100% paperless bill preparation and production systems and other correspondence as standard practice. Over the last 12 months, our new internal paperless bill preparation has saved a minimum of 800,000 sheets of paper (1,600 reams).

Our environmental impact

Our buildings use low energy bulbs and the lighting in our London office is controlled by an intelligent system, meaning that the lights turn off automatically when space is unoccupied. Old fluorescent tubes are recycled in line with the WEEE regulations.

Our offices also have smart systems for controlling temperature, so heating and cooling units only run when they are needed, further reducing our energy consumption. New heating and cooling systems in our London office means that our comfort control is now more efficient and economic.


We are committed to minimising our impact on the environment by using resources efficiently and managing our energy consumption.

Over the last 12 months, our new internal paperless bill preparation has saved a minimum of 800,000 sheets of paper (1,600 reams).

We are active contributors to the Legal Sector Alliance, committed to reducing our impact on the environment.

Approximately 80% of the waste cardboard and paper produced in our buildings is being recycled and we seek to work with local businesses to collect it, minimising fuel emissions.

We recycle everything that we can. This includes toners and print cartridges; tins/cans; glass; food wrappers; plastics; and paper cups. Over 80% of cardboard is recycled.

New heating and cooling systems in our London office means that our comfort control is now more efficient and economic.

emissions down 6.25% from previous year, despite the firm’s expansion

The difference it makesWe are members of the Legal Sector Alliance, which seeks to encourage best practice in environmental management. As part of our membership, we report publicly our carbon footprint. In the last report (March 2012), we recorded an annual figure of 5,237 tonnes of CO2 (or 4.16 tonnes per employee) for our London office. Despite BLP’s expansion over the past year, we have still achieved a reduction in emissions (6.25%) over the previous year and we will continue to work to put in place new working practices that lead to further reductions.

Peter HarrisBuildings Manager, BLP [email protected]

CO2



Getting in touchWhen you need a practical legal solution for your next business opportunity or challenge, please get in touch.

LondonAdelaide House, London BridgeLondon EC4R 9HA England

Alison Klarfeld Head of CRTel: +44 (0)20 3400 [email protected]

Clients and work in 130 countries, delivered via offices in: Abu Dhabi, Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, Paris and Singaporewww.blplaw.com

About BLPToday’s world demands clear, pragmatic legal advice that is grounded in commercial objectives. Our clients benefit not just from our excellence in technical quality, but also from our close understanding of the business realities and imperatives that they face.

Our achievements for clients are made possible by brilliant people. Prized for their legal talent and commercial focus, BLP lawyers are renowned for being personally committed to clients’ success. Our approach has seen us win five Law Firm of the Year awards and three FT Innovative Lawyer awards.

With experience in over 70 legal disciplines and 130 countries, you will get the expertise, business insight and value-added thinking you need, wherever you need it.

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