Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is extremely important to all of our staff at Stephensons Solicitors LLP. Our CSR committee, which is a mix of staff from across our ten offices, meets on a regular basis to ensure our aims remain relevant and are being put into practice.
We follow the UK Small Business Consortium’s ‘Better Business Journey’, a model which encourages businesses to focus on people, premises, promotion and purchasing. As part of the firm’s CSR values, Stephensons also offers staff a time and money bank dedicated to CSR activities which has made many, but not all, of the following events and initiatives possible.
Our Family law team has devoted a lot of time to domestic violence victims by offering drop-in advice sessions from our Partington office. The sessions give people the chance to speak with a family law specialist and receive support on a number of family-related issues. The family team is very active across the North West region in conjunction with domestic abuse charities and often donates time/money to support local projects.
As a firm, we believe that all parts of society should have access to justice – not just those who can afford to pay for it – and as such we have launched a Pro Bono Unit to help with complex welfare benefits related appeals. This wont fill the huge gap left by the removal of legal aid but by playing our part we hope to help those most in need.
The firm strongly invests in helping people to gain access to the legal profession. As well as offering annual training contracts to legal graduates, Stephensons has this year taken the decision to offer apprenticeships for the first time. This includes legal apprentices in connection with Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Manchester Metropolitan University and a PR apprenticeship. A Legal Service NVQ Level 3 has also been made available to existing members of staff. In addition, over the summer months the firm offered vacation placements to 17 students, who gained valuable experience of working in a law firm.
The firm has also provided career support to a variety of local businesses, schools, colleges and universities. Staff members have given their time to provide talks for Young Legal Aid Lawyers. David Baybut, a partner in the commercial team, is a member of the Business Growth Hub which provides start up advice for new businesses. David and others in his team have provided free legal workshops for budding entrepreneurs. In addition, Stephensons is a founding member of the Wigan Business club which offers relevant advice, workshops and networking opportunities to local businesses.
Many local charities close to our offices and close to the people who work at Stephensons have also benefited over the last six months. This includes youth sports teams who we have sponsored, local events such as the DKNY fashion and networking evening we held in September which raised funds for Macmillan Cancer Support, and the Wigan Youth Zone, which we raised funds for by taking part in the inaugural Wigan 10k.
We also work with the children’s charity, Barnardos, as part of a voluntary partnership to share a voice on specific issues such as domestic abuse and homelessness. In the past this has involved a changing room challenge at a Barnardo’s property and working together to deliver a domestic abuse conference for people working in that area. This work was highly commended at the 2012 Law Society Excellence Awards.
Sometimes, it’s not just about giving time or money. Within our offices we’re also working hard to make sure we’re responsible and doing what we can to save energy and cut down on waste. This includes having ‘switch it off’ stickers near electrical goods to preserve energy, recycling stations in each of our ten offices for paper, plastic, glass and toner cartridges, a cycle to work scheme for staff, season ticket loans for staff to use public transport and much more.
The next few months is set to be busy for the CSR committee and the firm as a whole. We’ll keep you updated with events and initiatives as they happen, via the News and Events section of our website.