Community investment policy

As a leading global law firm, we work alongside our clients to help them achieve their goals by providing fresh thinking and helping them develop solutions to succeed in their business. Our Community Investment Programme seeks to provide the same quality of service to those with whom we work in our communities by sharing with them the skills and expertise of all our people through activities such as pro bono work, volunteering the diverse skills of our people and awarding funding where appropriate.

This policy makes a series of commitments, reflecting the importance we attach to this work. It reflects our activities at global, office and individual levels.

We commit to:

  • have a global Community Investment Strategy to support our communities in a consistent way across all of our offices (see below);
    give 1% of pre-tax profits, half in cash and half in time at cost, to community investment activities every year
  • encourage all of our people to take advantage of their day to volunteer
  • align our Community Investment Programme with our business activities so that we make best use of our skills and expertise and also derive as much professional development as such activity offers
  • complement local activities with global projects that involve more than one office and which combine pro bono and volunteering with substantial financial support
  • always favour working in partnership with organisations who share our values and who bring additional expertise, be they NGOs, the public sector or, increasingly, our clients
  • work hard to measure the impact of our work in the community and share this with our people, our community partners and with others working in this field
  • advocate the responsibility of business to invest resources in its communities, using our experience, networks and position to progress this important agenda;
  • support individuals in their personal charitable activities through matching fundraising and recognising volunteering
  • support the community investment activity of our clients through the Senior Partner’s Discretionary Fund

This policy applies to all offices of Linklaters LLP and will be reviewed annually and revised as required.

Agreed by the Global Community Investment Committee
24th November 2009

Who and what we support

Our community partners work with disadvantaged communities close to our offices. We have identified the following areas where we believe that our support is best able to help them in achieving their goals.

These are:

  • Achievement - empowering emerging talent to achieve its potential
  • Enterprise - encouraging enterprising and entrepreneurial people
  • Access to justice - advising on legal rights and responsibilities