Each year, the MPF honours one firm for exceptional achievement.
- 2005 - Slaughter and May
- 2004 - KPMG for their approach to corporate social responsibility.
- 2003 - Deloitte for their integration of the UK practice of Andersen.
- 2002 - Weil Gotshal & Manges for raising over $100m for the New York Fire & Police Widow's Fund following 9/11.
Most firms have pro bono programmes. These days, it has become something that graduates insist on. However, measuring contribution purely on the number of hours spent on community work is an increasingly poor measure.
Community contribution goes far deeper. It should touch on the way that fee earners manage client relationships: an eagerness to be always looking out for ways to give something back. But that usually means changing a firms culture, and we all know the adage: - Systems may be easy to change, but culture is a wholly different matter
Twenty years ago, the role of the managing partner at our winner tonight was described to the MPF as being to make sure that the roof did not leak and there was enough cash for the payroll. Worthy as these tasks may be, it is unlikely that an MP with this level of authority could change any firm's culture. Indeed, I suspect that most partners in those days would be hard pressed to even name their MP.
Fast forward 20 years and this firm has become a household name with a high profile and a truly global practice. Through the efforts of a series of outstanding managing and senior partners, it has carried out extensive evaluation of its values and what it means to be employed by the firm. HR may have been the instrument, but the driver was the management team, some of whom are with us tonight.
We set two tests:
- We recently invited the firm to enter for a Best Corporate Citizen Award. They declined on the grounds that focusing on individual initiatives took away from the fact that all fee earners saw this as something that was endemic to the firm's culture.
- We sought to find out whether the firm's values had permeated to the furthest reaches of its global network. All too often, people in international offices pay lip service to anything from head office which does not involve profitable client referrals. This firm is different. Our research and discussions with local thought leaders indicated that the people in this firm really do sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to giving something back, whether based in Frankfurt, Hong Kong or New York.
Allen & Overy is firmly committed to helping the communities in which it operates, as demonstrated by 76 per cent of the firm's fee earners in London participating in its pro bono and community affairs schemes, including weekly attendance at the Battersea Legal Advice Centre for the past 15 years. The New York office acts as pro bono counsel to the International Bar Association in support of Guantanamo Bay detainees. The firm pioneered the Voluntary Interest on Client Account Scheme, a way of contributing cash to voluntary agencies. Its schemes involve primary school children; mentoring and work placement schemes for older children; volunteering with the elderly; and fundraising for many deserving causes worldwide.
The firm brings its values and community focus together through a "Values into Community Action" programme, seeing this as an important part of articulating the firm's identity and the values it champions to an internal audience, as well as guiding its people on how to engage and communicate with external audiences.