Law firm highlights – November 2021

Law firm highlights

• Simmons & Simmons has announced the launch of a new GreenTech fund, which will support start-ups that are focused on using technology to mitigate the climate and biodiversity emergencies. The fund will award £100,000 of legal advice from across Simmons’ network to four businesses that are innovating in order to try and avoid or limit the worst effects of the climate crisis. The GreenTech fund is now open to applications from businesses who seek to utilise technology to restore environmental balance and biodiversity, and to tackle climate change. Applicants are invited to share their entries via video from today, up until the December 31, 2021 deadline. Eligibility criteria and the application process can be found on the Simmons website. The initiative is being led by members of the firm’s environmental sustainability network (the green room), and involves a collaboration with a number of investors, accelerators and incubators who have a particular focus on sustainability, including: Techstars, Entrepreneur First and Illuminate Financial. Commenting on the GreenTech fund, co-lead of the green room, Ali Crosthwaite said, “In common with many organisations, Simmons is looking for ways to maximise its positive impact and the GreenTech fund is an attempt to achieve that by sharing our skills with businesses that are actively seeking solutions to the crisis in which we find ourselves – we will need multiple solutions and we firmly believe that collaboration is our best hope.” Rezso Szabo, partner at Illuminate, commented, “We are seeing early stage Climate and Sustainability technology companies starting to catalyse real change. As a VC fund backing several of such start-ups, we are delighted to be collaborating with Simmons on the GeenTech Fund initiative, aiming to support businesses in this critical space.”The GreenTech fund is an evolution of the FinTech fund that Simmons launched in 2016, which was created to support early stage FinTech businesses navigate the legal problems faced by many fast growth companies in their early years. The initiative was very successful, with the firm supporting Marshmallow in becoming one of the UK’s most recent FinTech unicorns.

• Kennedys is giving its colleagues an annual ‘wellbeing day’ as part of a series of initiatives encouraging them to look after their mental health. People can take their day’s leave at any point and can also now carry over up to six days of their holiday allowance to use throughout the following year. Previously, this was limited to five days which had to be taken before the end of April – traditionally one of the busiest periods for law firms – and many were missing out. The increased flexibility – coupled with events such as online art and yoga classes, and a series of webinars on everything from healthy eating to managing your finances – aim to recognise the pressures of the last 18 months and help keep the firm’s 2,300 colleagues connected. Caroline Wilson, global HR director at Kennedys, said, “As anyone working in law firms will know, the end of the financial year can be one of its busiest times and we were finding that people were losing their holiday because they didn’t want to take the time off. We didn’t want anyone to miss out or be caused unnecessary stress because of that so we’ve relaxed that rule and now colleagues can book the time off when it suits them. Similarly, the wellbeing day is a bonus, but by calling it that we’ve found that it’s encouraging people to think differently and use it to do something for themselves. Over 600 people have already requested their wellbeing day so far.” The announcements come at the end of the firm’s annual wellbeing month in October, spearheaded by Kennedys’ global head of healthcare and strategy board member, Christopher Malla. One of the biggest successes this year has been a series of art classes, run live across three different time zones, with more than 100 people around the world taking part. Malla said, “The response was absolutely amazing. People only needed a pencil and a piece of paper, and I think that simplicity made it work. We had so many lovely emails afterwards from people saying they couldn’t believe how relaxing it had been, just to do something different and to turn off from work for an hour. Judging by the standard of pictures we received, many people also found their inner artist!” Colleagues have also been encouraged to post videos on the intranet, sharing three things that they do to keep well. It follows the firm’s ‘Let’s Start the Conversation’ series of webinars, designed to inspire and inform, which were launched shortly after the first lockdown in June 2020.

• Linklaters will be the first international law firm in the Middle East to launch a first of its kind online learning experience programme, allowing students and career-changers interested in pursuing a legal career to experience working at a global law firm. The Linklaters online programme, operated via the Forage platform, allows students from any university or background, to experience the type of work they would do on a vacation scheme or training contract with Linklaters. It is also a valuable tool for career-changers to see what a career in law might entail. Participants will receive video instructions from partners and associates, as well as resources to support them in completing work that reflects the day-to-day responsibilities of a commercial lawyer during their training contract. The seven-module programme offers participants real work experience by requiring them to complete tasks, reflecting the core practice areas in the Middle East: corporate, banking, capital markets and energy & infrastructure. The programme also includes tasks on Islamic Finance and a bonus optional Arabic translation module. Participants will have the opportunity to compare their work throughout the seven modules with real model answers created by the Linklaters team. The online learning experience programme is a key initiative in Linklaters’ diversity & inclusion strategy. As part of the firm’s social mobility action plan, the programme aims to increase access to opportunities in the firm, and level out information asymmetries that can disproportionately affect people from less advantaged backgrounds. Middle East partnerJonathan Fried, commented, “Linklaters was the first law firm and first UK institution to offer this online learning experience programme to individuals based in the UK, and we are delighted to have created a programme tailor-made for the Middle East. The online learning experience programme was developed very closely with trainees, associates and partners of the firm, and aims to give a real sense of our day-to-day work. Our hope is that it gives anyone interested in a career in law an accessible introduction and meaningful insight into what we do. We hope it gives potential applicants confidence to pursue a career with us, regardless of personal background.” Forage is an open access platform offering free company-endorsed virtual work experience programs, with the aim of increasing the accessibility of career opportunities for students of all backgrounds.