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08 October 2025
Categories: Legal News , Profession , ESG , Diversity , International
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UK firms pull ahead on responsible business

UK law firms have risen up an annual index of responsible business activity, while US firms have regressed amid President Trump’s diversity and equality crackdown

The annual Chambers and Partners’ Lamp House report analyses the websites of 150 firms across the categories of people, planet and governance. Scores for the UK top 100 rose 12% on last year, with more declarations in particular on net zero targets, parental leave policies, social mobility recruitment policies and responsible business boards.

Conversely, the US top 50 average score dropped 30%.

Lisa Hart Shepherd, chief product and innovation officer at Chambers and Partners, said: ‘While UK firms continue to make heartening progress when it comes to responsible business, political headwinds in the US appear to have had a significant effect on what US firms are prepared to disclose. That doesn’t mean the initiatives in place have disappeared overnight, but firms are rethinking and reshaping the public communication and positioning of those efforts in the light of the political risk.’

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
Criminal juries may be convicting—or acquitting—on a misunderstanding. Writing in NLJ this week Paul McKeown, Adrian Keane and Sally Stares of The City Law School and LSE report troubling survey findings on the meaning of ‘sure’
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has narrowly preserved a key weapon in its anti-corruption arsenal. In this week's NLJ, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers examines Guralp Systems Ltd v SFO, in which the High Court ruled that a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) remained in force despite the company’s failure to disgorge £2m by the stated deadline
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