DLA Piper, Eversheds and Linklaters have won a place in an index ranking organisations by their commitment to corporate responsibility (CR).
The trio of firms were given a silver rating in the Business in the Community 2008 CR index.
The award comes despite all three launching major cost-cutting drives in the past six months, leading to the loss of hundreds of jobs.
The legal sector was one of the most improved in 2008, with just DLA Piper making the list with a bronze rating in 2007.
The Business in the Community rankings investigate a company’s environmental initiatives, charity/not for profit schemes and community programmes, and diversity statistics.
According to the organisation, a silver award means that the law firms conduct effective stakeholder engagement; have the right processes in place to identify and manage risks and opportunities; and tend to already have one or two years’ worth of data that would enable them to demonstrate environmental and social performance improvement over the last one or two years.
No law firms were given the top two bands: platinum and gold.
Compared to other organisations, law firms generally scored well with an average score of 87 per cent. The average across all companies was 83 per cent.
The highest scoring sectors were insurance, utilities companies and general retailers.
Oh please! This is just considered to be part of the advertising /PR spend, and there are few more nauseating sights than large firms of solicitors receiving awards for being “socially responsible” whilst simultaneously sacking dozens of employees to preserve the partners’ PEP.
Pass the sickbag Alice!