Why HFW?

Corporate responsibility

HFW is committed to being a responsible business, one that considers, as part of our everyday work, the needs of our colleagues, our communities and our environment as well as the impacts of our actions. We recognise the importance of this to our employees, future employees, regulators and clients and we want to work with suppliers who also have a commitment to act responsibly.

Community Investment:

• We are addressing issues relating to our sectors through partnerships with Mission to Seafarers and Renewable World .
• Individual offices take part in a range of activities including fundraising, pro bono and volunteering for charities working within their local communities with a focus on education and employability, and access to justice and legal services.
• All Trainees play an active role in pro bono work and our community investment activities.
• In April 2020, we concluded our firmwide charity partnership with violence reduction charity Fight for Peace. Over the three year partnership HFW colleagues climbed the 24 peaks, abseiled, ran and took part in boxing classes to raise funds and the firm donated £100,000 which enabled FFP to support over 600 young people in job readiness and specific skills training, and a further 120 young people were supported onto longer vocational courses that they may not otherwise have been able to afford.
• You can find out more about our initiatives here

Environment:

• We are committed to reducing our environmental impact particularly through the use of technology such as video conferencing and we have installed LED lights in our London office.
• We have started collecting environmental data from our offices so that we can measure our global carbon footprint.
• In London, we have achieved the PlanetMark^TM sustainability certification which requires us to meet an annual carbon reduction target.
• You can find out more about our initiatives here

Marketplace:

• Building mutually advantageous relationships based on trust between us and our clients is at the core of HFW’s business. In order to understand what concerns clients most, we regularly review and appraise our performance through client feedback.
• Anti-bribery, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering policies are in place, and all employees undertake training in these areas.
• We have an anti-modern slavery and human trafficking statement.
• We want to work with suppliers who also believe Corporate Responsibility is important. We ask all new suppliers to sign up to our Ethical Supplier Code.

Workplace:

• Our Management Board has signed our Global Diversity Statement to demonstrate their commitment to Diversity and Inclusion.
• We have Diversity and Inclusion Champions (at Partner level or equivalent) in our offices.
• We are signatories of the Law Society’s Diversity & Inclusion Charter.
• We have identified five diversity focus areas (gender equality, ethnicity, mental wellbeing, LGBT+ and social mobility) and are undertaking actions to address each one in collaboration with our employee networks. You can find out more about all of our achievements in these areas here.
• We partner with Aspiring Solicitors, an organisation committed to increasing diversity in the legal profession. We are very proud to have won the Aspiring Solicitors All Star Firm: Improvement in Diversity and Inclusion 2018 award.
• We have partnered with Rare to integrate their Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) into our graduate recruitment process. The CRS enables us to further understand the context in which applicants’ experiences have been gained. This helps us to open access to the legal profession, and recruit the very best people from a range of diverse backgrounds.
• We are signatories of PRIME, the legal profession's commitment to work experience for school-age students from disadvantaged backgrounds and signatories of City Solicitors Horizons , a pilot social mobility initiative to improve access to the legal profession for university students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
• We were listed in the Top 50 Social Mobility Employer index in 2017 and 2018 and Top 75 Social Mobility Employer index in 2019.
• We are a UK and global Stonewall Diversity Champion and feature in the Stonewall Starting Out Guide.
• Representatives from our Proud@HFW employee network attend the London Pride Parade. The network also run a campaign to raise awareness of LGBT+ equality in the lead up to the parade.
• A number of colleagues in our London and Melbourne, Perth and Sydney offices have received LGBT+ Ally training.
• We are signatories of the Mindful Business Charter.
• We have run mental health awareness training for over 100 of our partners, we recognise mental health awareness week annually with a global campaign and we have committed to match the number of physical first aiders with mental health first aiders.
• We are signatories to the Equal Representation in Arbitration pledge .
• We are an accredited ‘Living Wage Employer’ and ensure that all London employees, including those not necessarily employed directly by the firm, are paid at least the London Living Wage.