Locations
Africa, Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Middle East, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States
Our latest report outlines our progress against key ESG objectives along with new initiatives and goals arising from expanded reporting.
Fieldfisher has published its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report for 2023.
Our latest report is the third comprehensive statement on Fieldfisher's ESG activities across the international firm, detailing our progress in key areas including carbon footprint reporting, pro bono activity, inclusion, equity and diversity, engagement of our people and charitable giving.
Highlights of our 2023 report include:
Environmental
- We expanded our carbon footprint reporting to 13 offices internationally.
- We began reporting on Scope 3 emissions for purchased goods and services for the first time.
- We reduced building-related emissions by 9.5% and emissions from waste by 27% compared with 2021/22.
- We hosted an inaugural IT Sustainability Week to educate colleagues on adopting IT-related environmental practices to improve workplace sustainability.
- We delivered ESG upskilling training to colleagues in five countries.
Community
- We donated £526,000 to global causes through our firm-wide One Firm Action fundraising initiative.
- We formed 11 new official charity partnerships across 10 offices.
- We provided over £1 million-worth of pro bono support.
- We hosted our first Inclusiveness and Diversity Summit for clients.
People
- Sponsored by our Race, Inclusion, Support & Education employee network, we ran an educational programme to raise awareness of challenges faced by under-represented ethnic groups in the legal sector.
- We partnered with City Century, a collaboration of 50 City Law firms, to significantly increase the number of solicitor apprentices entering the City of London.
- We were proud to see our first cohort of solicitor apprentices qualify in 2023 and welcomed 19 non-legal apprentices through our newly established Apprentice Career Excellence (ACE) Programme.
- We won the Disability Initiative of the Year Award at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2023, for Discover, our market-leading disability network.
Governance
- We ran our first international Associate Engagement Project.
- We devised a series of priority actions to enhance collaboration across our offices.
- We continued embedding Enterprise Risk Management across the entire integrated firm.
Commenting on the publication of the firm's 2023 ESG Report, Robert Shooter, Managing Partner of Fieldfisher said:
"Our thinking on ESG has developed significantly since I became Managing Partner two years ago. Last year, I outlined some of our core ESG principles and areas of focus, and I am pleased to say we upheld and made progress against all of these in 2023.
"These include expanding our carbon footprint reporting across our European network, launching new inclusion, equity and diversity initiatives, and making decisive moves on sustainable premises and business travel.
"Our One Firm Action charity fundraising initiative was an incredible achievement from all our people, across all our offices. We raised over £500,000 for good causes, both local to our office locations but also global causes.
"We also provided over £1 million-worth of pro bono hours across the firm to support issues our people care about.
"In 2024, we're excited to be centralising our ESG function as a core department within the firm. We are also embarking on new sustainability initiatives, as well as expanding on the success of our flagship Rooting for Change programme and looking forward to our next One Firm Action challenge."