C O R P O R A T E S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y

INTRODUCTION

At Watson Farley & Williams we are committed to being a responsible business, both in how we work with our clients and also in terms of how we contribute to the wider community and the world around us.

Frank DunneChairman

We are delighted that staff from our 14 offices worldwide selected Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders as our 2015 charity of the year as this respected charity truly makes a difference on a global level. In addition to our work with MSF, the firm sponsors individual members of staff who take part in a variety of fundraising activities to support charities that are close to their hearts.

Across all of our offices, we are committed to looking at practical ways to reduce our environmental impact. In addition, the firm achieved Carbon Zero status through our participation in the Kenyan Energy Efficient Stove Project and the Ugandan Community Borehole Project. Many of our offices take part in Earth Hour – a World Wide Fund for Nature inspired event that encourages the turning off of non-essential lighting for an hour.

From volunteers assisting with reading and numeracy skills at a local school to organising a social event at a home for the elderly, giving back to our local

communities is an important element of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Our New York office’s contribution to improving the lives of children and families has been recognised at the New York City Family Court Volunteer Attorney Programme’s Pro Bono Service Awards.

The firm is proud to support the development of legal skills and expertise for lawyers from Africa through the International Lawyers for Africa programme. Over the past few years we have hosted lawyers from Rwanda, Nigeria and Kenya for three month secondments.

Our charitable, environmental and community efforts across our offices in Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East have helped us to achieve accreditation with independent CSR assessors EcoVadis.

Have a look at the following pages to get a better understanding of CSR at Watson Farley & Williams.

Angharad Harris Partner, Global CSR Lead

ABOVE

A Sudanese refugee holds her child after visiting an MSF clinic during a vaccination campaign for children under the age of two in Yida camp, South Sudan.

BELOW LEFT

An MSF emergency doctor and her Afghan colleagues treat a head trauma patient injured in a motorbike accident, at the Intensive Care Unit of Kunduz Trauma Centre in Kunduz, Northern Afghanistan.

© Mikhail Galustov/ MSF

BELOW RIGHT

At MSF’s out-patient department in Batil refugee camp, South Sudan, a nurse escorts a patient with possible appendicitis to a waiting ambulance.

OPPOSITE

MSF logisticians unload a truck with humanitarian supplies for MSF’s tent hospital in Guiuan, Philippines, during the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

© Yann Libessart/MSF

© Nichole Sobecki / MSF

OUR CHARITY OF THE YEAR

Staff from across Watson Farley & Williams’ offices in Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East voted overwhelmingly in favour to support Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)/Doctors Without Borders. From baking competitions to dress down days, quiz nights to book sales, summer fundraising parties to fun runs, we have since worked hard to help raise funds for this globally recognised charity.

MSF help people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters or exclusion from healthcare.

© Francois Dumont/ MSF

ABOVE

Staff from our London office, along with a few friends and family, took part in the Friends of MSF sponsored fun 5k/10k run in Victoria Park.

RIGHT AND BELOW

A summer garden party, held at the historic St Paul’s Church in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, raised funds for MSF. Complete with croquet, giant Jenga and live music.

LEFT

Who is the brainiest one of them all? A fundraising quiz night for MSF, held in the London office, proved to be a popular event.

BELOW

From tantalising lemon cake with lemon cheesecake filling to an exotic Columbian Torta Negra, staff in our London office vied fiercely for the WFW Masterchef title.

ABOVE

Colleagues in our Singapore office raised funds for MSF by holding a red and white themed event on National Day.

OUR ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS

We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and adopting sustainable practices. We promote awareness of climate change and the potential impact of our activities on global environmental stability and we support and encourage all activities which reduce this impact.

Carbon Zero

We commission an independent carbon audit each year across all of our offices. In 2013 we offset the firm’s entire carbon emissions (2,255 tonnes Co2e), achieving carbon zero status, through our participation in the Kenyan Energy Efficient Stove Project and the Ugandan Community Borehole Project.

The Energy Efficient Stove Project (above left) builds energy saving cooking stoves for people in villages around the city of Kisumu, in east Kenya. These brick stoves result in a 50% reduction in the need for firewood and thereby decreasing carbon emissions. It also provides families with a cost and time effective method of cooking. The reduced need for firewood helps to prevent deforestation, creating knock-on benefits to the wildlife in terms of habitat and flood prevention. It is also a healthier method of cooking as it reduces indoor smoke by half. The World Health Organisation has dubbed this the “kitchen killer”, as it is responsible for 1.9 million deaths in Africa every year.

The Ugandan Community Borehole project (above right) is based around the rehabilitation of boreholes in the north east of the country, which will supply families with fresh clean water. As well as the natural health benefits it means that families no longer have to boil the water, saving firewood and thereby reducing carbon emissions. The project creates a funding mechanism for the community that ensures the long-term maintenance of the boreholes – many boreholes have been built by other organisations but ongoing maintenance has been neglected or poorly planned. This project is in the process of being put through the Gold Standard.

Legal Sector Alliance

In 2008 we joined the Legal Sector Alliance (LSA), an initiative for UK law firms that promotes awareness of climate change and highlights the potential impact of our activities. LSA membership reinforces our commitment and work so far, to reduce our carbon footprint and adopt sustainable practices.

© Tina Munn - WWF © WWF-UK

© WWF-UK

Earth Hour

Many of our offices and members of staff joined hundreds of millions of people around the world in over 7,000 cities in 162 countries as they switched off their lights in support of Earth Hour.

Some of our other environmental actions

Low energy lighting with sensors to switch off automatically has been installed in the London office and installing a voltage reducer/optimiser is expected to save c. 10%+ energy each year. Funds raised from recycling old mobile phones and IT equipment is donated to our charity of the year. A green tariff for our London car and taxi service has reduced our vehicle carbon footprint by around 33%. A Cycle 2 Work scheme and business mileage rates where bicycles are used for business further encourages greener travel. In 2013 we recycled 38,020kg of waste, saving the equivalent of 483 trees and 51,970 CO2.

Our Singapore office has been recycling with The Singapore Recycling Centre since 2005 and recycles over 2,500kg of paper each year.

Our New York office has replaced bottled water with filtered water, switched to recycled paper and has introduced more environmentally friendly cleaning products as well as recycling points for cans, bottles, and paper products.

Our Athens office operates recycling points for cans and bottles. On average, they recycle over 2,000kg of paper each year.

Our Hong Kong office uses recycled cartridges for black/white and colour printing and double-sided printing. A general mixed recycling point collects plastic and aluminium as well as paper.

Our Madrid office has switched from bottled water to filtered water and has introduced paper recycling points. They have also donated used computer equipment and Blackberry mobiles to a local children’s charity.

Our Paris office uses recycled cartridges for black/white and colour printing and paper is collected for recycling. They also donate plastic bottle tops to the French charity Les Bouchons d’Amour, who sell them for recycling and use the funds raised to help purchase equipment for the disabled. Unwanted computer and electrical equipment from our Paris office is repaired, re-used or recycled through “Les Ateliers du Bocage”, part of the Emmaus group.

Waste paper from our Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt offices is collected for recycling. In the first six months of 2014, this saved nearly 100 trees.

Our Hamburg office provides a secure storage area for cyclists and changing facilities.

In December 2015, the firm sent over 20,000 Season’s Greetings e-cards. A generous donation was made to our charity of the year, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in lieu of printing.

© Foto: Jens Hoyer

All In Racing Team

When a young group of yachtsmen, who gave the shirts off their back to fund their participation in the Youth America’s Cup, came to us for legal advice, we admired their spirit. Our Hamburg and Munich offices assisted the team in all legal aspects of their participation including the foundation of a company and drafting of sponsorship and sailing agreements, as well as tax matters.

OUR COMMUNITY CARE

New York City Family Court Volunteer Attorney Programme

Our New York office’s contribution to improving the lives of children and families was recognised at the New York City Family Court Volunteer Attorney Programme’s Pro Bono Service Awards last year.

We are keenly aware of our obligations to the wider community in an economic, social and human context. We aim to share our skills to help those in need as well as provide practical support to our local communities and beyond.

Reading and Numeracy Skills

With the aid of comics, games and sometimes chocolate, children at a local school have improved their reading and numeracy skills with the help of volunteers from our London office.

Guiding Careers

Volunteers from the London office assisted at a Careers Open Day, organised by the Kids Company, and hosted work experience students, as part of the Leytonstone School Partnership programme.

International Lawyers for Africa

The firm supports the development of legal skills and expertise for lawyers from Africa through the International Lawyers for Africa programme and has hosted lawyers from Rwanda, Nigeria and Kenya for three month secondments.

Local Seniors Home

Volunteers from the London office helped organise a fun day for residents of a local senior citizens home. The highlight of the afternoon was the ‘Tour de Frame’, an homage to the ‘Tour de France’. In addition to the race, everyone enjoyed a variety of games and afternoon tea.

Les Restos du Coeur

Staff in the Paris office held a ‘pot luck’ lunch and collected a considerable amount of non-perishable food items for donation to Restos du Coeur (Restaurants of the Heart), a charity that distributes food packages and hot meals to the needy.

Give Blood

Donated blood is a lifeline for many people needing long-term treatments, not just in emergencies. Following a donor information session hosted at the London office, more than 30 people gave blood at a nearby mobile clinic.

OUR CHARITABLE GIVING

We encourage charitable giving and provide our employees with the ability to make tax-efficient donations to charity directly from their salary. We will, if appropriate, match or make a significant donation to those charitable events in which employees participate. We also support clients in their charitable activities.

Payroll Giving

Regular payroll commitments to charity by our UK employees earned us a Silver level UK Government Payroll Giving Quality Mark Award for 2014.

Three Peaks Challenge

Two teams from our London office took part in the Sailors’ Society UK Three Peaks Challenge 2014. To raise funds for seafarers’ welfare, the group undertook various fundraising challenges, including a sponsored leg waxing, a ‘Call My Wine Bluff’ event and a poker tournament.

Athens Half Marathon

To celebrate 30 years in Greece as well as moving to new premises, a team from our Athens office, along with some clients, took part in the annual Athens half marathon. Those who participated were raising money for Elpida, a well-known charitable organisation, which raises money for children with cancer in Greece.

Movember

Colleagues in our London, Singapore, Hong Kong, Paris and Madrid offices cultivated moustaches to support ‘Movember’, raising awareness and funds for men’s health issues.

World Maritime Day

Colleagues in our Singapore and Italian offices ditched their suits and donned red, white and blue in support of World Maritime Day, raising money for the Sailors’ Society.

HSH Nordbank Fun Run

A team from our Hamburg office joined over 21,000 runners in the HSH Nordbank fundraising event. This is the biggest charity run in Northern Germany.

Standard Chartered Great City Race

A team of 10 from WFW London joined more than 5,000 runners at the 2014 Standard Chartered Great City Race. The 5km corporate running challenge, which took place around the closed off streets of the City of London, attracted teams from over 350 different companies. The event raised money for Seeing is Believing, an initiative to help tackle avoidable blindness around the world.

Centrepoint Sleep Out

Three members of staff from the London office joined almost 1,000 people in three venues across the UK as they bedded down under the stars, raising money for Centrepoint’s annual Sleep Out. The charity helps c. 80,000 young people who experience homelessness in the UK every year.

Lyreio Orphanage

For the third year in a row, our Athens office organised a food drive for the Lyreio orphanage. Based in a remote village at the top of the settlement of Neos Boutsas, the organisation supports 73 children.

London Legal Walk

The London office joined more than 7,500 walkers, joggers and runners in 400+ teams who took part in the annual London Legal Walk, raising money for the London Legal Support Trust.

Kids Company Christmas

The London office supported the Kids Company by collecting donated children’s Christmas gifts and food items for hampers. A team of volunteers helped wrap presents and create food gift packs.

Dress for Success / Suited & Booted

Our London office collected donations to support two charities that help men and women move forward with their lives by providing interview suitable clothing and helping them prepare to get back into work.

THANK YOU!To the staff at Watson Farley & Williams for their hard work and dedication. Without their

support, none of the achievements outlined in this book would have been possible.

All references to ‘Watson Farley & Williams’ and ‘the firm’ in this publication mean Watson Farley & Williams LLP and/or its affiliated undertakings. Any reference to a ‘partner’ means a member of Watson Farley & Williams LLP, or a member or partner in an affiliated undertaking, or an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualification.

The transactions and matters referred to in this publication represent the experience of our lawyers. This publication is produced by Watson Farley & Williams. It provides a summary of the legal issues, but is not intended to give specific legal advice. The situation described may not apply to your circumstances. If you require advice or have question or comments

on its subject, please speak to your usual contact at Watson Farley & Williams. This publication constitutes attorney advertising.

© Watson Farley & Williams 2015

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