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28 March 2019 / George Wilkinson
Issue: 7834 / Categories: Features , Profession , Charities
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Laying the foundations

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It’s time for law firms to take the next step in charitable giving, says George Wilkinson

Law firms are no strangers to charity, and more and more are waking up to the opportunities on offer if they pursue charitable initiatives. But the upcoming start of the new financial year offers an opportunity for a fresh approach to charity, perhaps exploring what is relatively uncharted territory for law firms: a fully-independent charitable foundation.

Law firm charitable giving can stretch from doing something funny for money every March on Red Nose Day, sponsoring a local sports club, or perhaps most simply, making a direct donation to a charity. Working alongside and behind this is the law firm’s broader corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.

A large-scale study of CSR in large law firms, undertaken by Birmingham Law School in 2015, found that the motivations of law firms in undertaking CSR vary considerably (see ‘Large Law Firms and Corporate Social Responsibility’, Steven Vaughan, Linden Thomas & Alastair Young, Birmingham Law School, November 2015). The motivations

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