Sustainability
As a global law firm and a significant part of the legal community in the Nordic countries, we can affect society through the positive change we can influence and contribute to. We do this by getting involved and investing resources where our involvement and advice can make a difference. Through our actions and with our legal competencies as a foundation, we can contribute to a more just, stable and sustainable world.
The Nordic countries share a common approach to responsible business, driven by shared values, equality and solidarity. Our societies are recognised for combining economic growth with strong social and environmental policies. We’re leaders in governance, innovation, capitalization of human potential, equality and environmental sustainability indicators. These factors influence how we address environmental, sustainability, social and governance issues. And we have big ambitions to make a difference.
Pro bono work is an essential and integral part of our culture. As a responsible law firm, we volunteer to help local and international communities.
We focus on three main areas:
- promoting climate justice and conservation
- protecting the rights of vulnerable people
- promoting equality and good governance
Pro bono work is a valuable way for our lawyers to develop their skills, broaden their experience and build their experience in ESG.
Our lawyers use their professional skills to volunteer for good causes. We encourage all our lawyers to undertake pro bono work and see it as a necessary and value-added activity alongside other client work. Each year, we contribute more pro bono hours across DLA Piper, and for several years we’ve provided more than 200,000 hours per year globally. We’ve contributed more than 4,206 hours in the Nordics.
Martin Lavesen
To find out about our sustainability work globally, please visit DLA Piper's Global Sustainability Report:
DLA Piper's sustainability report
People
With offices worldwide, understanding, valuing and incorporating diversity is woven into our culture. We are continuously striving to be the best place to work and develop for our employees and to promote diversity, inclusion and equality within the firm.
We promote a culture that is inclusive of all where everyone has the opportunity to grow their career and pathways to success are transparent.
Through our international "Break into Law" initiative and Women in Law network, we actively address gender-balance issues.
We foster human resources networks designed to support our employees, raise awareness, share information, and collaborate with other stakeholders. Iris is our international open network, providing networking opportunities and promoting LGBT+ events and initiatives. The group works to increase representation of LGBT+ colleagues at leadership levels, delivers pro bono legal services to LGBT+ organisations through Iris Represents, and promotes inclusion.
In Sweden, the local Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) committee is actively engaged in various initiatives to enhance diversity and promote a more inclusive workplace. This includes partnering with the Diversity Charter to underscore our commitment to an inclusive work culture. We also host internal seminars during European Diversity Month and collaborate with organizations such as Nolla Utanförskapet, Fryshuset, and others to empower and mentor youth from diverse backgrounds.
In Norway, the local D&I committee has taken action in several areas to increase diversity and inclusion. These include ensuring that job ads are gender and culturally neutral, ensuring that marketing and communication has balanced representation, and visibly key diversity events such as Oslo Pride.
In Denmark, an internal survey on gender diversity was carried out among all legal staff members in the spring of 2021. The project name is ’Equal opportunities’, and the general topics of the survey included career, development, retention, and flexibility. The survey, which is to be carried out bi-annully, aimed at determining whether our male and female legal staff members experience equal opportunities for equal pay, promotion, the taking of leave, work-life balance, and whether views, expressed by a male or female staff member, are dealt with in an equally serious manner.
Everyone deserves to feel valued and supported, regardless of background or identity. Through regular wellbeing surveys, training programs, workshops and ongoing dialogue, we aim to create a workplace where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels empowered to contribute their unique perspectives.
For a global firm remote work is just one of the ways of getting things done. In accordance with expectations of a modern working life, our employees have a great deal of freedom to choose when and where they want to work, as long as they deliver according to our and clients' expectations. These measures also support our ambitions increasing numbers of women in leading positions.
To help our employees maintain a good work-private life balance we monitor workload and actively offer our employees sports and wellbeing benefits.
Learning, development and engagement
Our aim is to provide a range of learning opportunities that our people can use according to their own needs and preference, from formal training to pro bono work. Colleagues can also sharpen their skills through volunteering or being part of a local office champion group or network.
We offer a smooth cross-border working environment to our people. The Nordic Secondment Week is a unique opportunity for our people to get to know their Nordic colleagues, another office culture and local practice groups.
Each year we host a Nordic Onboarding event for all new joiners. A great platform for new joiners to meet new colleagues, network and socialize together while at the same time learning more about the practices in our Nordic countries and how we work across borders as one Nordic team.
Every second year all employees in the Nordic region have the opportunity to participate in one Nordic gathering, to learn more about working at DLA Piper and how we cooperate as a Nordic team.
Clients
We are committed to advising our clients in a way that helps them successfully navigate the S&ESG challenges they face and supports the transition to a sustainable future. Our work with clients represents our biggest opportunity to make a positive difference to society, reduce environmental impacts, and support a green recovery.
In our advice and support to clients, we work with both the clients’ own sustainability matters and their need to create, invest in and develop products, instruments and agreements that promote sustainability in business. We collaborate with Nordic Business Ethics, an initiative with the mission to provide inspiration and insights relating to business ethics. In Ethics Talk LIVE virtual events we address topical business ethics themes, such as, anti-corruption, compliance, business and human rights and diversity & inclusion.
Just as we advise our clients on S&ESG issues and help them create sustainable value through our S&ESG services, we also partner with them to help us manage our own sustainability impacts, sometimes in collaboration with other external stakeholders. In this way we work towards common sustainability goals and tackle challenges together.
Society
As one of the largest global law firms, we have a significant impact on people, communities and business. We are working to gain a deeper understanding of our impact, so we can contribute to reducing inequality and building a fairer world. There are many ways we can have an impact on society, from the advice we give to our clients, to our pro bono work and our community partnerships. We have a long history of taking on leading positions in different organizations in the society.
Martin Lavesen also holds membership of the special committee on diversity set up by the Confederation of Danish Industry and is member of the sustainability task force set up by the Federation of Danish Professional Service Firms.
Law firms are in a unique position to drive positive societal change. Lawyers can make a major contribution to civil society, protecting the vulnerable, reducing inequality, widening access to justice and embedding the rule of law. Through our community partnership programmes, recruitment practices and inclusion efforts, we also have the opportunity to improve social mobility , breaking down barriers to entering and succeeding in the legal profession.
We believe that pro bono projects are key to developing the skills and experience of lawyers, and we want to ensure that all our lawyers have an opportunity to explore pro bono work. Our pro bono work is handled with the same professionalism and commitment as other mandates.
Each Nordic office has a dedicated pro bono partner and pro bono committee who supports the creation and delivery of our pro bono services.
The Boards Impact Forum is the Nordic chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative, in collaboration with World Economic Forum. The purpose is to engage board directors in Nordics and internationally, to accelerate climate actions and innovation for sustainable business and a sustainable world. DLA Piper has supported the organization with legal advice when it comes to setup of the organization and directions on development.
DLA Piper advises Ukraine House in Denmark, an association established to promote Ukrainian culture in Denmark in 2023. The project is supported, among others, by the Ministry of Culture. The association is located at Gammel Dok in Copenhagen, where they organize art exhibitions, literary events, debates, concerts, and more. Among other things, we have assisted in relation to lease agreements, collaboration agreements, employment advice, and association bylaws.
The Norwegian Cancer Society (NCS) is an important societal actor and a large membership organization in the health sector. NCS works to reduce the incidence of cancer, increase survival rates, and enhance the quality of life for patients and their families through research, preventive measures, information, support, advice, and lobbying. We have provided pro bono legal services to the NCS and served as a legal sparring partner on numerous NCS projects, including the establishment of the NCS Science Center in Oslo. Several DLA Piper employees have been involved in these projects, and we have developed clear ambitions and goals for how we will work together in the coming year.
Joannahuset is the first refugee center in Denmark offering sanctuary to vulnerable children and young people. Even though the cause is highly worthy, the activities must, of course, be carried out within the existing regulatory framework. DLA Piper assists Joannahuset in ensuring that they comply with particularly data protection rules. We also provide assistance in proceedings before the Danish Data Protection Agency if anyone claims that they are in breach of the rules.
Our pro bono practice focus on three areas
Environment
Our single most important environmental impact and opportunity is linked to the work we do for and with our clients, and the advice we give them.
Operationally, the vast majority of our carbon footprint is associated with procuring goods and services from suppliers and with our business travel. Aside from climate impacts, other key environmental impacts from our operations relate to resource use such as energy, water and waste.
Climate action
In August 2020 DLA Piper International made a formal commitment to the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) to set a new science-based carbon reduction target on international level. On Nordic level we strive to meet the goals decided on international level, a work in progress. This commits us to reducing our absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year.
Our internal international campaign brings together a network of over 150 office champions, helping us meet our science-based carbon reduction target by translating our international climate strategy and priorities into local actions.
We are proud to be one of the first global law firms to commit to the UN Global Compact (UNGC) principles in 2013 and support the Sustainable Development Goals. As a signatory to the UNGC we have committed to reporting progress against the UNGC Environment Principles in our Annual Communication on Progress.
In 2007 we became the first law firm to achieve global ISO14001 and in 2017 we transitioned globally to the new ISO14001:2015 standard, further committing us to significantly reduce our impact on the environment.