Greenwoods Solicitors

As a modern, nationwide business, we at Greenwoods recognise our responsibility for the way in which the provision of our services affects our people, our clients, wider society and the environment. We make it our business to support the development of the people and places around us, both in the workplace and in the communities in which we live and work.

In recent years, our Corporate Social Responsibility Policy has become a fundamental part of who we are as a service provider, investor, employer and consumer. There are three main elements to our CSR policy; a) our people and the workplace, b) the community and the marketplace and c) the environment.

We have three main aims:

• To support our people and help them realise their full potential
• To support development in the local communities in which we operate
• To take responsibility for our impact upon our environment

As part of our community involvement, we are proud to be members of the Prince’s Trust Insurance Leadership Group, which supports disadvantaged young people. To find out more about this and other Greenwoods’ initiatives, please see a brief summary of our main CSR activities below. To view the full text of our Business Conduct and Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, please click here.

Our People and the Workplace

As people are our most valuable asset, we need to attract, retain and develop those of the highest calibre. We therefore aim to recruit and promote exclusively on grounds of ability, avoiding all forms of discrimination and exclusion. As a signatory to the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter, we underline our commitment to equal opportunity in the workplace.

Internal and external training and development is an integral part of life at Greenwoods. Every single person has a performance appraisal at least once a year. As well as developing our own people, we aim to nurture young, outside talent by providing work experience programmes for AS and A Level students. We also work in partnership with local colleges to offer twelve month Apprenticeships in Business Administration, thereby giving A level graduates a year’s valuable work experience to help towards their first step on the career ladder.

All staff are expected to adhere to our standards of business conduct. Compliance is maintained by the firm’s Quality Management System, as well as its case management and work flow systems. Greenwoods holds ISO9001:2008 and recently gained ISO 27001 in relation to document security. The firm has also held Investor in People accreditation since 2001.

The Community and the Marketplace

At Greenwoods, we engage with the communities in which we work and we understand our responsibilities to them. As a firm, we encourage our people to get involved in local projects and to use their skills, legal and non-legal, to the benefit of the community and specific groups and individuals within it.

For our clients, we offer a mentoring programme, called Mentoring Matters. Through the scheme, which is provided free of charge, our specially trained ‘mentors’ lend a guiding hand to those starting out on their career or moving up the ladder. The mentoring takes the form of advice, reassurance and ongoing support for young and upcoming talent. Please contact Charles Ashmore for further information.

Prince’s Trust Insurance Leadership Group

We are proud to have become members of the Prince’s Trust Insurance Leadership Group.   The ILG is made up of companies from across the insurance sector who have come together to make a direct impact on the lives of disadvantaged young people.  Our aim is to give vulnerable young people access to mentoring and training support and practical advice about jobs and getting on in life. As members of the Insurance Leadership Group we support the Prince’s Trust by:

• Raising monies through donations and fundraising activities
• Providing job training opportunities
• Hosting introductory events for potential supports within the industry

The Environment

We strive to manage our business operations so that we promote responsible and sustainable practice and minimise the impact we have on the environment. Whilst aiming to reduce our consumption of natural resources, we manage waste through responsible disposal and the reuse of and recycling of materials wherever economically feasible.

As a law firm, we run a very paper-intensive business, but we make every effort to reduce our paper consumption, through re-using and recycling.

Our Environmental Action Plan covers all areas of our work activity, from waste management to transport and travel, raw materials, supplies, electronic equipment and energy usage.