Christmas comes early at Allen & Overy

The festive season is set to come early for Allen & Overys (A&O) clients this year as the magic circle firm prepares to unveil the worlds largest company Christmas card.

Eight years ago the firm decided to scrap its traditional yuletide Christmas card budget and instead donate the cash it would have spent to the national homelessness charity Crisis.

As tall as a traditional double-decker bus and measuring four metres high by three metres wide the card has been created using the artistic skills of homeless members at Crisis Skylight and will be revealed in Bishops Square, Spitalfields tomorrow (11 September) at 3.00pm.

But sending a card over four metres tall to all of the firms clients may prove difficult - so in return for their donations the organisations will get a short film documenting the cards construction process, which the firms can then email to their clients as an eco-friendly e-card.

A&O senior partner David Morley said: "We've been sending the Crisis e-cards for eight years and have always had great feedback from our clients, as well as from our people, many of whom volunteer their time to Crisis throughout the year.

We're really proud to be supporting the Christmas card challenge this year and I encourage other companies to join the campaign and help Crisis to reach another fantastic fundraising target. "