Employing sound principles of governance

We actively participate in a wide range of forums engaged in developing high standards in responsible business practice, including the Business and Human Rights Lawyers Association, Net Zero Lawyers Alliance, the Legal Sustainability Alliance, Legal Charter 1.5 and the Sustainable Markets Initiative.

As a law firm, we are bound by professional ethics in how we conduct ourselves, upholding the rule of the law and providing independent advice in the best interest of clients. Everyone at Ashurst, whatever their role, is expected to adhere to the highest standards of ethical behaviour in the conduct of our business and activities worldwide, in accordance with our Code of Conduct. We also expect our suppliers to behave ethically, in accordance with our Supplier Code of Conduct.

We take seriously our corporate citizen obligations to comply with the evolving regulatory landscapes, including on:

• human rights due diligence;
• counter-financial crime obligations;
• protecting personal and client data;
• managing risks and opportunities in the adoption of AI-powered technology; and
• increased transparency reporting on climate, environmental and corporate responsibility.

While the right to access to legal advice fundamentally underpins the proper functioning of a community based on the rule of law, our approach to responsible business and our impact on our communities continues to be developed with our Business Strategic Alignment Committee and relevant stakeholders. We have incorporated measures into our new business acceptance procedures to systematically consider the environmental and human rights impacts of the work we do.

Our Enterprise Risk Management Framework facilitates our structured approach to understanding, assessing and managing risks and opportunities across our business activities. We do this to ensure we can deliver on our objectives within the constraints of what we can do and the risk appetites set by our Executive Team and Board. The Enterprise Risk Management system holds a number of risks indicators and metrics against relevant identified risks and opportunities and their corresponding controls. We monitor that we are effectively protecting and/or maximising our firm's ability to deliver on our sustainable objectives.

We are committed to training our people to support engagement with risk management and are evolving our reporting capabilities across relevant sustainability-related risks and opportunities to provide greater transparency to our people, our clients, our suppliers and our communities.

We appreciate that all organisations face the risk of things going wrong from time to time. A culture of openness, transparency and accountability is essential in order to prevent such situations occurring, to feel empowered to report them if they do arise, to address and to learn from them when they do occur.

We support a strong speak-up culture across the firm and our wider networks and strive for a respectful and psychologically safe working environment. Everyone working at or with Ashurst, is encouraged to report suspected wrongdoing as soon as possible. Their concerns are taken seriously and investigated as appropriate. Our whistleblowing, grievance and anti-harassment or bullying policies provide guidance as to how to raise those concerns, and reassurance that anyone working at Ashurst is able to raise genuine concerns in good faith without fear of reprisals, even if the concerns turn out to be mistaken.

We welcome comments and feedback on our approach to Responsible Business. Please email us at responsiblebusiness@ashurst.com.