News & Views

In an interview with lawyers weekly recently, AusLSA Member firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth spoke about the social dislocation caused by the pandemic and that a flexible working model needs to be seamlessly rolled out to ensure that business plans are not adversely affected. They said that firms need to focus on culture and connection with a renewed focus on employee well- being and creating opportunities for bringing social engagement back into the workplace. See the article here.

Halting the climate crisis will require action from every individual and enterprise. Small and medium sized enterprises making up about 90% of businesses and accounting for 50% of employment worldwide, will play a critical role in this change. Setting Science-based climate targets can perhaps seem a daunting task and the Science-based Targets Initiative have developed some tools to help smooth the way for small and medium sized businesses to set these targets. See an introductory article from SBTi HERE.

Over time we have used terms like CSR, ESG, Social Impact, Corporate Citizenship, et al, which were all used to define core business strategies around “purpose”. Everybody in the organisation needs to have an understanding of what “purpose” means within the organisational context in order to gain the greatest benefits, and then to use an up-to-date glossary of terms that describe that purpose.

This article from Sustainable Brands might help describe what purpose means for your organisation. See the article here.

EDIE is hosting a series Sustainability Reporting and Communications sessions, they offer up an afternoon of live, interactive webinar presentations and discussions – all dedicated to helping sustainability and CSR professionals drive stakeholder engagement through robust reporting and captivating communications at a time when misinformation and uncertainty regarding the net-zero movement is rife. Sessions include 1. Dispelling sustainability myths and overcoming greenwash (12:30-1:30) 2. Behaviour Change Case Studies to drive embed sustainability across the business (1:45-2:45) and 3. TCFD disclosure: looking beyond compliance (3-3:45)  READ MORE

Philanthropic support given by corporates has increased dramatically as businesses recognise their place in society. A new report by JBWere, the Corporate Support Report, examines the growth in partnerships between the corporate sector and the for-purpose sector, and the opportunities available to each in creating partnerships of mutual benefit. The data is promising for charities and for-purpose organisations, with the top 50 corporates for community investment in Australia collectively providing more than $1.2 billion in 2021 alone. JBWere senior research consultant, John McLeod says “I take that as being part of this long-term trend of corporates understanding what their role is within the broader society, wanting to contribute to that and seeing benefits from it themselves,” - Now is the time for for-purpose organisations to engage with corporates to create key partnerships that benefit both parties. READ MORE

The Clayton Utz Foundation has announced a new $50,000 award to help advance the capacity of one of Australia's growing number of Health Justice Partnerships (HJPs). HJPs deliver community legal services to patients within the health system. They use healthcare professionals to identify when a patient has potential legal problems and to link them with a lawyer onsite, meaning that earlier legal intervention can prevent health and legal issues from escalating. There are now over 100 HJPs operating in Australia. READ MORE

Allens has announced the appointment of 12 new partners to bring the percentage of female partners to over 37 per cent on 1 July, exceeding the firm's gender target – set in 2017 – of at least 35 per cent female partner representation in 2022. The firm has set a new target of at least 40% female partner representation in 2025, under its 40:40:20 aim: 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men and 20 per cent any gender (women, men or non-binary persons). READ MORE

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AusLSA members need to understand and address the risks of modern slavery in their supply chains. AusLSA will convene a series of Modern Slavery Roundtables with members that are interested in helping their firms reduce the risks of harm to people trapped in Modern Slavery.  

Robin Mellon, CEO at Better Sydney is our guest presenter for our first roundtable on the 9th of may where he will discuss

• the value of collaboration,
• key areas where law firms could collaborate to improve modern slavery outcomes and
• ideas about similar collaboration models or organisations that we could learn from .

Robin has promised an honest - no punches pulled - assessment of the state of play and the requirements for success. REGISTER HERE

Last week AusLSA held its first Climate Action Roundtable. We were delighted to see 44 attendees from our AusLSA members on the day and a further there 38 registered members who will be receiving this recording and presentation.

we were left with the clear impression that there is great interest, not only in the importance of climate action, but also in developing the many skills, tools and actions we all need to learn about to help our firms respond in a meaningful way. Collaboration between members of AusLSA is a great way to do this and we look forward to an exciting ongoing roundtable series.

1. You can review a recording of the roundtable including all questions and after discussion HERE
2. A copy of the roundtable introduction slides can be viewed HERE
3. A copy of Chris from Pangolin’s overview presentation can be viewed HERE

Stay tuned for an invitation to our next roundtable

The IPCC in April 2022 effectively gave their final warning that if we want to limit global warming, deep emissions reductions across all sectors must commence immediately. Science based targets are a way to help organisations with a clearly-defined path to reduce emissions, in line with Paris Agreement goals. Such targets include the downstream impact of supply chains. The fashion industry, perhaps with an implicit alignment to the Paris agreement, talks about the use of Science-based targets in their industry HERE and how this can help with greenwashing. The same lessons can be applied to other manufacturing supply chains.