Corporate social responsibility
Manches supports Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2012
Now in its 10th year, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group's annual awards is a celebration of those at the legal aid coalface. We are sponsoring the "Outstanding Achievement" award. One of the judges will be Michael Mansfield QC, a leading legal aid barrister, and the winner will be revealed on 12 June. More information can be found at www.lapg.co.uk. |
Our work brings us into contact with people from all walks of life, but we never lose sight of the fact that not everyone has the financial resources to get all the legal support they need. It falls to the often unrecognised dedication of legal aid lawyers to provide this support.Our approach
Manches believes that business behaviour must be socially responsible. We believe that businesses should take account of the impact of their activities on the economy, society and the environment. We aspire to make a positive impact in the community in which we operate, and to minimise our impact on the environment.
We know that our stakeholders expect similar standards of socially responsible behaviour from their professional advisers. Our policy is to make social responsibility a core value of our organisation - because it makes sound business sense to do so and, more importantly, because we know it is the right thing to do.
To demonstrate our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility we have established a CSR committee consisting of both legal and non legal employees. The Committee aims to engage with all, to share ideas on, and encourage participation in the firm's CSR activities.
Our activities
We organise our CSR activities into three areas:
Professional involvement and “pro bono” activities: We have a pro bono procedure in place within the firm which is advertised on our intranet and we actively encourage employees to take part in pro bono work. We take the opportunity to help clients or non profit making organisations by providing free legal advice.
School governors: We encourage our employees to take up positions of responsibility in the local community. One of the best ways of putting something back into the Community is through becoming a school governor. We have worked with the School governors One Stop Shop scheme to place governors within schools, we invited them in to talk to our employees about becoming a governor and we keep in contact with them. They make us aware of vacancies in our local area which we advertise to all employees through our intranet.
Charitable activities: We ask staff in our Oxford office on a yearly basis to nominate local charities in which they had an involvement of some form. In the last year we are pleased to have given support to the following local charities:
- Helen and Douglas House
- The OxfordNight Shelter
- Sobell House
- See Saw
- The Thames Valleyand Chiltern Air Ambulance
- The Oxford Children’s Hospital
- Pathway Workshop
We have asked our suppliers to reflect our ethical and charitable aims in their provision of services. For example, our restaurant supplier, Catermasters, use fair trade products so far as possible and take part in the “one water” scheme which supplies roundabouts to provide clean water to villages in Africa.
Community Partnership: In 2010 we sponsored the Children’s International Arts Organisation (CIAO) Ark Project which is a charity that brings together scientists, artists and children to imagine a low carbon future and its potential benefits to the environment and society. The project culminated in the spectacular construction of a beautiful Ark made completely out of sustainable materials on a ‘Sea of Troubles’ which was a visual representation of what children choose to leave behind from aerosol cans to values and behaviours that they feel have contributed to current environmental problems when imagining sailing away to a low carbon future. Ten partner schools across Oxfordshire have been involved in creating artwork for the Ark and staff from Manches were also involved in constructing the Ark.
Work Experience: We work closely with the schools in the Oxfordshire area offering work experience to 7 schools including Matthew Arnold, St Gregory the Great, The Oxford Academy etc. Work experience in arranged in blocks of one week throughout the year and we offer these student the chance to experience life within a law firm.
We also offer work experience for Graduate and Undergraduate candidates over the summer period. We do not offer a formal summer vacation scheme within the Thames Valley. this is organised on ad hoc basis and provides the students with experience of shadowing a solicitor and spending time within our Marketing Department
Sponsorship of the OXILP Commercial and IP Prize for the LPC: We will be sponsoring the Commercial and IP Prize for the best exam result on the LPC which will be presented for the first year in 2011.
Environment and climate change
Recycling: We actively promote recycling of:
- Paper and other recyclable waste
- Battery recycling
- Glass recycling
- Recycling of law books
We have also introduced other measures to reduce our carbon footprint:
- Lighting
- IT and printers
- Air conditioning and heating
- Water heaters and coolers
Legal Sector Alliance: In 2009 we joined the Legal Sector Alliance. It is part of The Law Society and is interested in acting on Climate Change and what we as a business do. There are 6 principals of the LSA, these are:
- Measure, manage and reduce the impact of our operations
- Work with external stakeholders to reduce our indirect impact
- Integrate awareness of climate change across our business
- Consider the implications of climate change in the advice we give
- Work collaboratively to engage in the public debate on climate change and to develop, apply and promote best practice across the sector
- Report on our progress and be accountable
We report to the LSA on a yearly basis and we produce a document which outlines everything we do in line with the LSA’s objectives as listed above. We have also recently calculated the carbon footprint for the Oxford Office for gas and electricity consumption. This is something we will be extending to other areas of the business including travel and will also be completing for the Reading and London offices in the future.
Transport policy: Both our London and Oxford offices run a Cycle to Work scheme. The firm buys bicycles which individuals can hire for a year and use to commute to work. At the end of the year the individual can opt to buy the bike.
This scheme has proved to be popular with several members of staff participating in the scheme and swapping their main mode of transport from a car to a bicycle.
Environmental Law Foundation: Approximately six cases per year are referred to Manches through the Environmental Law Foundation, which provides pro bono advice on planning and environmental matters affecting communities.
Workplace
Diversity and inclusion: We value and actively encourage a workplace where everyone is valued for their skills and contribution and we do not tolerate discrimination on any grounds. To help us develop as diverse and inclusive a workforce as possible we monitor:
- Disability
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Age
We also recognise the need to monitor sexual orientation and propose to collect information that will help us continue to improve our approach to equality and diversity.
Flexible and supportive working practices: We have a policy in place to consider requests from any employee for non-standard working arrangements. We have a policy on maternity and paternity leave which gives benefits to our staff on a basis which enhances the statutory position.
In addition, we offer schemes to support employees, including childcare vouchers and permanent health insurance for employees and their families.