Simmons goes all-out on corporate responsibility
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Community work to feature on timesheets and appraisals in radical rethink of business plan
Mark Dawkins
Simmons & Simmons has put corporate responsibility (CR) at the heart of its 2009-12 business plan, becoming one of the first firms to make CR central rather than peripheral to strategy.
As part of the CR programme, dubbed ‘Step Up’, managing partner Mark Dawkins will be the first of a series of bloggers to update the firm on their progress. The twice-weekly blog will be accompanied by a podcast on iTunes. At least 15 partners have committed to being regular bloggers.
CR and diversity manager Mary Gallagher said: “We want to highlight CR champions, particularly at the senior level, showcase the work that’s already ongoing and clearly explain the benefits for people if they do get involved.”
Teams will be encouraged to liaise with clients to establish their respective goals and how best to collaborate. Employees will be rewarded for their contributions with time off in lieu, an awards ceremony and recognition in the appraisal process.
“We want CR to be at the heart of the business, rather than being a bolt-on,” said Gallagher. “The obvious way to do this is through the business plan mechanism. Clients are pushing this - the requests from clients for collaboration are getting greater and more detailed.”
Although the firm has existing CR and pro bono capabilities, the Step Up programme will formalise the areas of work and the reporting process, extend its reach to all global offices and create new incentives.
Country heads will convene with senior partner David Dickinson by telephone on a quarterly basis and will get together to discuss progress at the annual spring partners’ meeting.
CR and pro bono partner Richard Dyton said: “There’s a whole world of need out there. Lawyers have a moral obligation to go out and change things in their communities.”
With fee-earners under increased time constraints during the downturn, firms are grappling with how to prevent CR being pushed off the agenda.
Clifford Chance has also announced plans to create a CR awards ceremony (The Lawyer, 21 September).
The Simmons scheme will enable staff to input CR hours into their timesheets and the firm will offer them a day off for every 21 hours they complete. It is also reviewing how to incorporate CR on a formal basis in every employee’s annual appraisal.
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Readers' comments (13)
Britomart | 19-Oct-2009 12:37 pm
So what's going to happen when the markets come back, are Simmons going to carry on with this project or will they quietly junk it?
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Anonymous | 19-Oct-2009 4:39 pm
Oh please! If changing things in the community is really important to you then I suggest becoming a social worker and doing it full time. Nothing but a cynical exercise in PR in my view. You bet once markets turn up and associates are back at normal levels this will be junked.
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Anonymous | 20-Oct-2009 7:29 am
Simmons never seems to make the news except for various and frequent community/diversity/IT initiatives - is it still considered a top 20 UK firm?
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David | 20-Oct-2009 10:19 am
These people would never become social workers or teachers or charity workers or nurses or street sweepers or anything else useful to society. They're (primarily) in it for the money, so they may as well be encouraged to do something valuable for few hours a month. It's not going to change the world by itself but it's better than nothing.
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Anonymous | 20-Oct-2009 6:09 pm
While it is easy to be cynical, CSR can have real and tangible benefits to the world outside the City. Law firms have historically been behind in CSR and the progress to catch up with other industries has been slow. Lawyers are a part of society as well and surely they could be doing more to help?
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Anonymous | 21-Oct-2009 9:28 am
Addleshaw Goddard have had a CSR blog - in the public domain for the last two and a half years - see www.addleshawgoddard.com/csr. Will be interesting to see if the Simmons one is still around in 2012.
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Anonymous | 21-Oct-2009 10:31 am
All law firms shout about their CR / pro bono commitments and very few do anything meaningful including, I expect, Simmons until now. But having put their heads above the parapet, let's at least see what they do and judge them on that.
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Anonymous | 21-Oct-2009 3:53 pm
Britomart - Simmons wouldn't run this kind of story if it were just a short-term PR stunt. I know that the time off in lieu policy, pro bono time recording and internal awards have actually been in place there for a few years already - certainly pre-credit crunch. Some other firms are doing plenty of CR work too (CC mentioned are very good) but many are way behind, so let's hope that this encourages people and firms to give it more prominence (and more stories in the media...).
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Anonymous | 22-Oct-2009 9:30 am
Lawyers have no more of a moral obligation to help their wider society than any other member of society.
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Andrew | 22-Oct-2009 12:46 pm
I very much doubt that Richard Dyton would have anything to do with this initiative if it were simply a PR exercise.
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