For companies, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important competitiveness factor in the global market and it does not only mean compliance with the relevant legislation.
As the CSR issues are multidimensional, it is not enough to assure the responsibility aspects within the company’s core operations. The choice of external consultants, such as law firms, plays a significant part in the entirety of CSR in the same way, as the choice of company’s subcontractors and it can make a great difference.
At D&I, we find CSR to be essential – something that is an integral part of the insightful legal advice we provide. For our clients, this means that our advice is concrete, wide, feasible and sustainable for the client in question. We ensure that not only the legal matters are taken into account but also the client’s situation and the circumstances as a whole are acknowledged.
Our Corporate Advisory, Compliance and CSR (“C-3”) practice group comprises versatile in-depth experience and knowledge in various responsibility issues. The members of our CSR-team are experts in several fields, such as M&A, Finance & Capital Markets, Competition, Tax and Data Protection. In addition to the practice’s permanent members, “C-3 ambassadors” from other practice groups, such as Employment and Dispute Resolution, attend to our meetings regularly and promote the issues discussed, in the meetings of their own practice groups. Certain assistants and trainees are also part of the practice, bringing different angles to the activities. This ensures that CSR issues are recognized at D&I in its entirety and our clients can receive the best possible expertise in legal issues.
In our Powerhouse-thinking, which includes Innovations, Disputes and Transactions Powerhouses, this means, inter alia, observing the sustainable development goals in Innovations, responsibility viewpoints in Transactions and paying attention to the principles of sustainable conflict resolution in Disputes.
In our work, we pay attention to the responsibility issues, such as ESG-dimension, code of conduct provisions, as well as ethical and responsible investment principles. We also acknowledge questions related to tax mitigation and tax planning vs tax avoidance and tax evasion from the perspective of CSR. When it comes to the Finnish company law we opine that a company management has an obligation to consider also CSR matters in their decision making when acting carefully for the benefit of company.
To ensure the high-quality of our work, we constantly follow the CSR related trends and regulation both domestically and internationally. As we know that the responsibility is an important factor also for our clients, we find it essential to truly understand what the CSR issues mean to our clients and what kind of issues raise in their daily operations.
As our law firm is responsible and ethical both as an organization and as an employer, we are also in a distinctive position to provide sustainable, insightful legal advice. For us this means being a fair, equal and inspiring workplace for all and being ethical in everything we do. We are constantly developing our operations in order to fulfill the requirements of economic, social and environmental dimensions of CSR. To exemplify, we are a WWF Green Office and we have participated the Great Place to Work survey in three consecutive years, being now in the top five in the middle sized companies’ category.
Furthermore, we are proud to work for our pro bono partners WWF, CMI, Ronald McDonalds Childrens’ House and the Finnish Hospital Clowns to support them in their important work for the protection of environment, world peace and children in need.
As the responsibility is deeply routed in our culture and values, we can render the best possible solutions for our clients and make a great difference in their responsible business.