header-logo header-logo

08 October 2025
Categories: Legal News , Profession , ESG , Diversity , International
printer mail-detail

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

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
back-to-top-scroll