Law Firm Sustainability Network's recently released "CSR & Sustainability Current State of the Legal Industry Report 2018" based on its survey of 53 US-based law firm respondents (majority reportedly from leading US or global law firms with 250 - 1,000+ attorneys) revealed these and other noteworthy findings about the firms' CSR and sustainability efforts:
- 82% of firms have sustainability program leadership. Among those, 35% are led by partners or sustainability partners.
- Sustainability is perceived as particularly important to associates and professional staff and new clients - less so for existing clients and partners.
- Most firms cite a positive effect of their sustainability program on employee morale (74%), cost efficiencies (59%) and firm reputation (51%), but report no positive effect or "don't know" on, e.g., firm revenue (78%), client retention (73%), and client attraction (69%).
- The top 3 reported challenges in respondent firms' sustainability programs were: (i) employee engagement - including, compliance, awareness, apathy, and keeping momentum; (ii) leadership buy-in; and (iii) allocating resources (e.g., budget, staffing, time).
- Nearly 30% of firms believe their sustainability program is moderately effective, and 12% say it is very effective. Another 17% say it is not as effective as they would like, and 42% don't measure effectiveness.
See the corresponding press release. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!