Communities
Making a positive impact on the issues that affect our communities
As a sector-focused law firm, our strategic charity partnerships seek to address key issues within our core sectors. We also have local charity partnerships across our international network that focus on improving access to justice, and education and employability.
Mission to Seafarers (MTS) have been our strategic shipping charity partner since 2017, and we have recently extended that partnership for an additional three years. Our partnership with Mission to Seafarers is a truly global one, with colleagues in London, Singapore and Australia all supporting the charities governance, and with Shipping teams across our network supporting local MTS fundraising initiatives and port centres across the UK, the Middle East, in Singapore and Australia.
Since 2017, we have provided donations and pro bono support with a value exceeding £650,000. Through that support, MTS have improved their governance, taking huge strides addressing mental health issues for seafarers globally, and provided vital connections to home for seafarers who spend up to nine months a year at sea away from their families. MTS port centres around the world offer seafarers a refuge, spiritual and physical comfort, and essential comforts to help make their time at sea more bearable. The MTS is one of the world’s largest providers of port-based welfare services, operating in over 200 ports across 50 countries, 365 days a year.
Since 2017, Renewable World have received a substantial amount of both pro bono and financial support from HFW, amounting to nearly £200,000. Renewable World seeks to support the climate transition and economic empowerment in Kenya and Nepal through projects installing renewable energy generation in remote, rural communities. HFW’s support enables critical projects to be driven forwards through our provision of matched funding for key fundraising campaigns for Renewable World, as well as supporting organisational change for the charity, enabling them to integrate market systems approaches to their work to ensure interventions involve key stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as local communities, to help deliver sustainable change.
Their Energy for Health (E4H) project in Kenya improved health outcomes for 14,000 people in remote and underserved communities with improved healthcare facilities powered by clean energy. According to the local Department of Health those communities saw significant increases in patient footfall generally and, in particular, they recorded dramatic increases in patients accessing ‘energy-enabled services’ (refrigerated medication and after dark emergency care) from 16% to 82% during the project.
Energy for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (E4WASH) programmes in Nepal are bringing about dramatic improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene in 11 schools in Gulmi District, Nepal, transforming the educational experience and employment prospects for more than 3,000 secondary school students.
In February 2021, we formed a partnership with aviation charity the Air League. They change lives through aviation, breaking down the barriers to aviation for hundreds of young people every year, helping them start their careers and building self-esteem and well-being through work experience, scholarships and outreach programmes that create a life-long impact on the beneficiaries.
As part of this partnership, we have welcomed work experience students to the firm, our Aerospace team have undertaken fundraising activities for the charity, and most recently, we are exploring how we can support the delivery of legal insight sessions at Air League experience days for students.
Frontline Live was originally launched in response to the COVID pandemic, with a group of volunteers collaborating to launch a digital platform to match need and supply of PPE during the height of lockdown. That concept was adapted in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to ensure urgently needed medical and other humanitarian supplies could be supplied quickly.
As the war in Ukraine continues, supply chains are disrupted, and civilians are trapped in the conflict. While larger charities face obstacles reaching the frontlines, Frontline Live Ukraine steps in. Collaborating with 20 small frontline charities, their volunteers gather and deliver vital domestic and medical donations directly where they’re needed most. So far, they have transported 27 HGVs packed with life-saving supplies, including 21 defibrillators, 8,000 thermometers, 20 generators, bedding, power banks, clothing, hygiene products, and medical supplies. Every donation highlights the impact of collective action in delivering aid where it’s most critical.
HFW’s partnership with Frontline Live is focussing on supporting the further development of their model to be adapted to other use cases. Our Insurance and Reinsurance team are leading this partnership, using their expertise across our sectors to provide insight and practical support to tackle some of the barriers facing the charity as they evolve.
Each of our offices are encouraged to form local charity partnerships aligned with one of two pillars:
- Access to Justice
- Education and Employability
Those local partnerships are intended to support the communities in which we all live and work, and to help build community resilience.
Tower Hamlets Law Centre
In July 2023, HFW formed a partnership with the Tower Hamlets Law Centre, with volunteers from the firm supporting their fortnightly employment legal clinic. Since then, over 40 HFW colleagues have undertaken over £40,000 worth of pro bono work .
LawWorks
Since August 2023, approximately 60% of our London trainees have had pro bono work. Via external pro bono platform LawWorks and other clinics, trainees have undertaken pro bono work supervised by partners within the firm.
One such matter was for ParaPride, a charity whose purpose is to support LGBTQ+ individuals with disabilities. One of our trainees worked closely with lawyers from our shipping litigation and employment teams to draft a volunteer agreement for the charity and review its employment policies. ParaPride Trustee, Tristan Bush, said: “We are so very grateful for all the support that the HFW team has provided us. As a small grassroots charity we are reliant on the skills and generosity that programs like this offer to be able to continue delivering our work.”
Equal Justice
Equal Justice is a Hong Kong-based charity that targets the city’s most disadvantaged people, aiming at increasing and improving community legal access to them to reduce their hardship. One aspect of their work is to connect law firms and lawyers with those who need but could not afford legal assistance.
HFW is a proud sponsor of CLIX. CLIX is a pro bono matching portal, tailored for and launched in Hong Kong by Equal Justice and PILnet. It connects impact organisations that need legal support – like charities, social enterprises and charitable foundations, and the people they help – to lawyers willing to help for free.
Colleagues at HFW are also encouraged to support the charities that they care about. We have three schemes to the support provided by HFW to our people to enable this:
- Give – Colleagues in the UK can join our payroll giving scheme through which they can make monthly donations to the charities they care about in a tax efficient way.
- Raise – Every member of staff at HFW can claim up to £250 per year in matched funding for any donation or fundraising activity.
- Volunteer – Every employee at HFW can take a day’s leave for volunteering. In addition, all lawyers at the firm can take on up to 100 hours of pro bono work in a year.
Other areas of responsible business strategy
Collaboration
Working responsibly with clients and suppliers, and partnering with them on shared sustainability and inclusion initiatives.
Colleagues
Creating an inclusive workplace and increasing diversity across the firm, so our people are supported to do their best work.
Climate
Measuring and reducing our environmental impact, and working with clients to support their sustainability ambitions.