Community
Our work within the community encompasses many different areas – not just in the Law. It is something our staff, from partners to fee earners and support staff, find personally rewarding and highly motivating.
Here is a selection of the work we have recently carried out across our international network.
Bangkok. Herbert Smith Bangkok has a special relationship with the Mercy Centre, which cares for 60 street children and 30 children with AIDS.
Brussels. Staff at our Brussels office help children at a local school with their English, and fundraise for various charities, including an orphanage in Liege.
Dubai. In November 2008, a team of eight took part in a swim around the Burj Al Arab. In January 2009, seventeen runners took part in the Dubai Road Races - 3km, 10km or marathon distance events. In February 2009, a further five runners from HS Dubai participated in the Wadi Bih desert marathon, a 75km relay across sand and mountains.
Hong Kong. Every week volunteers visit the John F Kennedy Centre, a residential and day school for children with physical disabilities, to tutor children in English and maths, play games and give piano classes.
London. Our employee volunteering programme includes literacy, numeracy, French and Spanish, and chess partners for local primary and secondary schoolchildren. Our volunteers also take part in mentoring programmes designed to support the pastoral development of young people and prepare them for the world of work. More recently we have introduced programmes designed to help tackle homelessness in London.
Paris. Volunteers support Droits d’Urgence, a non-governmental organisation providing free legal advice, representation and mediation in medical centres and shelters.
Singapore. Staff from our Singapore office conduct excursions to farms, the zoo and bird park with children from Yio Chu Kang Gardens School, a school for children with special educational needs.
Tokyo. Herbert Smith Tokyo assists with the NGO Refugees International Japan (RIJ), a volunteer-led organisation that contributes to the worldwide effort to help refugees.
Donating to charity
The firm operates a payroll giving scheme for all UK employees, which allows employees to give to charity in a tax efficient way. In addition, the firm gives £250 sponsorship to employees undertaking charitable fundraising endeavours like marathons or skydives in aid of charity.
Our Social and Sports Committee selects a charity of the year and organises a number of enjoyable fundraising events to help reach a financial target. For example, in 2007, the firm raised £100,000 for Breast Cancer Care.
We also operate a central fund for donations to charities that contact the firm and are within our remit. This is backed up with in-kind support, such as the use of meeting rooms and other facilities, to many of the charities involved in our community investment programme.