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Building better connections
Community is central to our people-first culture. By nurturing relationships with those who share our ambitions and values, together we can drive sustainable change.
We empower all colleagues to support the charities and causes that are close to them, recognising that passions are often individual. Our approach enables TLT to have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate, building resilience and helping to level the playing field.
We give individuals the opportunity and encouragement to generate change, whether that’s through participating in diversity events, fundraising for charity, volunteering or becoming actively involved in opening the legal industry to people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
We encourage our lawyers to spend a proportion of their working time on pro bono work to provide individuals and charities with legal advice where they can’t afford it. As signatories of the Pro Bono Charter, an initiative from The Law Society, our firm is committed to improving access to justice. We offer opportunities for our lawyers to participate in pro bono work through Bristol Law Centre and legal clinics at Manchester and Salford Universities, among others. We’re members of the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono through which law firms collaborate with each other to improve access to justice through pro bono in the UK.
An example of our pro bono activity this year is our work with UK Finance (a UK banking and financial services sector trade association) on Project Safeguard, designed to understand the legal landscape surrounding economic abuse, and resulting in a new report ‘From Control to Financial Freedom’. Our team provided legal and regulatory support to UK Finance, helping them to explore some of the obstacles experienced by victim-survivors of domestic abuse when regaining financial control.
"TLT's donation of time and expertise has ensured Depaul UK partner agreements are clear, concise, and legally sound. We have always found TLT to be efficient and timely. Crucially, their work helped to provide safe emergency accommodation for 600 young people last year" Ian Foster, Senior Nightstop Network Manager at Depaul UK, a homelessness organisation supporting young people.
We give all colleagues up to 35 hours of paid volunteering leave each year to use for an opportunity organised by TLT or one they organise themselves. This year over 1300 hours have been spent volunteering. We have two key strategic volunteering partners who offer opportunities across the UK: Business Volunteers and Belmont Estate. In addition, our charity committees work closely with their regional Charity Partners to take up volunteering opportunities where possible, as well as organise fundraising activities to raise important funds. We have £255,000 under management with Quartet Community Fund, to support local charities and community groups.
We’re increasing access to the legal sector by connecting with young people and raising their aspirations. We support Bristol-based charity, Ablaze, who tackle inequality of opportunity for young people, by volunteering in their reading partners and mentoring schemes to improve the literacy skills of primary school children and prepare Year 9 pupils for employment. This year we’ve partnered with London charity The Switch where our colleagues support primary school pupils in Tower Hamlets with their reading comprehension, speaking and listening skills.
"The volunteers engaged extremely well with the pupils and as a result they made excellent progress with their reading. As well as improving confidence with their reading, the pupils also improved their decoding and fluency." Tori Dorse, School Coordinator, Ablaze Reading Programme
We encourage our lawyers to spend a proportion of their working time on pro bono work to provide individuals and charities with legal advice where they can’t afford it. As signatories of the Pro Bono Charter, an initiative from The Law Society, our firm is committed to improving access to justice. We offer opportunities for our lawyers to participate in pro bono work through Bristol Law Centre and legal clinics at Manchester and Salford Universities, among others. We’re members of the UK Collaborative Plan for Pro Bono through which law firms collaborate with each other to improve access to justice through pro bono in the UK.
An example of our pro bono activity this year is our work with UK Finance (a UK banking and financial services sector trade association) on Project Safeguard, designed to understand the legal landscape surrounding economic abuse, and resulting in a new report ‘From Control to Financial Freedom’. Our team provided legal and regulatory support to UK Finance, helping them to explore some of the obstacles experienced by victim-survivors of domestic abuse when regaining financial control.
"TLT's donation of time and expertise has ensured Depaul UK partner agreements are clear, concise, and legally sound. We have always found TLT to be efficient and timely. Crucially, their work helped to provide safe emergency accommodation for 600 young people last year" Ian Foster, Senior Nightstop Network Manager at Depaul UK, a homelessness organisation supporting young people.
We give all colleagues up to 35 hours of paid volunteering leave each year to use for an opportunity organised by TLT or one they organise themselves. This year over 1300 hours have been spent volunteering. We have two key strategic volunteering partners who offer opportunities across the UK: Business Volunteers and Belmont Estate. In addition, our charity committees work closely with their regional Charity Partners to take up volunteering opportunities where possible, as well as organise fundraising activities to raise important funds. We have £255,000 under management with Quartet Community Fund, to support local charities and community groups.
We’re increasing access to the legal sector by connecting with young people and raising their aspirations. We support Bristol-based charity, Ablaze, who tackle inequality of opportunity for young people, by volunteering in their reading partners and mentoring schemes to improve the literacy skills of primary school children and prepare Year 9 pupils for employment. This year we’ve partnered with London charity The Switch where our colleagues support primary school pupils in Tower Hamlets with their reading comprehension, speaking and listening skills.
"The volunteers engaged extremely well with the pupils and as a result they made excellent progress with their reading. As well as improving confidence with their reading, the pupils also improved their decoding and fluency." Tori Dorse, School Coordinator, Ablaze Reading Programme
In the past year...
2%
of lawyers' billable hours they are encouraged to spend offering pro bono advice
1000s
of nature trips funded for school children from diverse backgrounds
1300+
volunteering hours spent by our people
£8,800
raised for our Charity Partners
£255,000
under management with Quartet Community Fund
40
school pupils supported through our reading and mentoring schemes
Charity activity
We offer three ways for our colleagues to support charity financially:
- engaging with the work of our location-specific charity committees
- matched funding
- charitable giving.
TLT has been upgraded to Silver from Bronze for this year's Payroll Giving Quality Mark.
Each year, our charity committees are responsible for organising the fundraising activities for their respective charities – each chosen by our colleagues and aligned with an annual theme. This year's theme is 'Social Mobility', and our current Charity Partners of the Year are:
- Belfast: Orchardville
- Bristol: Young Bristol
- London: Become
- Manchester: Lifeshare
- Scotland: Street League
- Birmingham: Birmingham Smart Works.
You can meet this year's charities and keep an eye on our LinkedIn to see more of our fundraising activities.
“I have used TLT’s volunteering policy for the last 16 years to volunteer for the Back Up Trust, which is a small national charity that supports people with a spinal injury. The experience I have gained through volunteering as a Group Leader on Back Up courses has been incredibly beneficial to my own personal development and work. I have improved my communication skills, become more motivated, confident and self-aware.”
Andrew Griffin, Head of Operations (Managed Legal Services)
Social impact and community partnerships
We have a responsibility to help develop the communities in which we operate, and we work closely with community partners to encourage a new generation of diverse talent and eliminate barriers to the legal sector. As well as our own initiatives, offering a range of pathways into the legal sector, we have a long-standing relationship with Bristol-based charity Ablaze. Working to tackle inequality for young people, Ablaze offers career mentorship, employability support and helps to boost key skills. Recently, TLT people have acted as reading buddies and helped students to develop practical life skills through mentoring sessions and workshops.
"The volunteers engaged extremely well with the pupils and as a result they made excellent progress with their reading. As well as improving confidence with their reading, the pupils also improved their decoding and fluency."
Toni Dorse, School Coordinator, Ablaze Reading Programme
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