Sustainability initiative

Measuring up

While the motivation to take on projects and continually improve our CSR and pro bono work comes from within DLA Piper, we know that outside verification and measurement of our efforts is important. As far as possible, we want to measure ourselves against the appropriate external benchmarks and externally accredited indices.

We are the first global legal services organization to implement ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management across all of our operations. We also have achieved OHSAS 18001 certification in the health and safety area in our UK operations.

In the US, DLA Piper is a signatory member of the Pro Bono Institute. Lawyers in our pro bono department are members of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel . Every year we supply data to The American Lawyer and the Vault Report and receive a ranking for pro bono performance and other measures. As members of the National Association of Law Placement, we provide information about our CSR and pro bono work and adhere to its principles and standards for placement and recruitment.

In the UK, DLA Piper is a member of Business in the Community, and each year we submit data in all CSR areas of workplace, marketplace, environment and community. We are also a member of the London Benchmark Group, a network of international businesses that are committed to managing, measuring and reporting on their involvement in the community.

We hope to instigate external assurance of our future CSR reporting efforts. We are also exploring establishing a formal stakeholder panel, and investigating other internationally accepted standards.