Through our large-scale global network, we are well placed to address global challenges through local actions.
We recognize our duty to donate talents, time and resources to benefit greater society. Whether donating money, volunteering time or legal counsel, or bringing awareness to important causes, we invest in community programs to ensure our people can bring their passions and purpose-led selves to work.
Our people are supported and empowered to make an impact on the communities and causes that matter most to them.
Our global partnership with the International Rescue Committee
Eversheds Sutherland is a proud global partner of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the global non-profit organization that helps people affected by humanitarian crises.
We provide the IRC with financial and pro bono support to help ensure its focus can remain on supporting those most in need across the 40+ countries where the IRC works with its local partners.
Highlights of our work in the community
Our aim is to offer support across a range of age groups for less advantaged children and young people to help them broaden their horizons and access opportunities, with a focus on education around careers in the legal profession.
- Unlocked - Eversheds Sutherland Unlocked is a UK based programme aimed at sixth form students from less privileged backgrounds, who are the first of their family to go to university, are studying at state schools and have a genuine enthusiasm for the legal profession. We work with the Sutton Trust through their Pathways to Law programme to offer the students a period of work experience within the firm providing them with an in-depth insight into what it is like to work for an international law firm. Unlocked was first piloted in 2008 and launched in 2009. Since then we have supported over 1,000 students.
- Scott Wagland and Gemma Curtis Bursary - Supplementing our Unlocked programme, the Scott Wagland and Gemma Curtis Bursary, supports with university tuition fees for the period of an Unlocked participant’s law degree. The Bursary also provides students with mentors from the firm, and vacation scheme opportunities. Of the 14 bursary recipients we have supported over the last five years, seven individuals were offered training contracts.
- Middle East Law Programme for Refugees - Run in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (‘UNHCR’) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (‘UNRWA’), the programme provides opportunities to displaced individuals through a comprehensive scheme that supports skill development and employability. It is open to individuals of any age or nationality who have refugee status with UNHCR or UNRWA, based in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan or the Palestinian Territories and are studying law at university. We have also continued our financial sponsorship of several UNHCR and UNRWA students, and are now funding the tuition fees of four students for the duration of their university studies.
Our aim is to help alleviate poverty through targeted intervention and financial support.
- Magic Breakfast - Since 2021, we have partnered with Magic Breakfast, a charity working to support schools with a high percentage of students who are eligible for free school meals. Their aim is to ensure no child is too hungry to learn. Our people volunteer at breakfast clubs, assist with meal service, and support students in their educational development, including developing reading and conversational skills. Our support has enabled Magic Breakfast to deliver over 300,000 healthy breakfasts for children.
- World Food Day - Every year, to mark World Food Day, offices across the firm come together to support local food banks and the communities they serve through food drives, giving opportunities and volunteering. In October 2024, over 20 offices across the firm participated in this initiative and managed to donated over 2700 food items, equivalent to 1.3 tonnes. In addition to food items, many of our offices made generous monetary donations to support their local food banks, which will go a long way in supporting those facing food insecurity in our communities.
Our aim is to develop partnerships to aid our commitment to climate action, utilising opportunities to engage our clients, our people and our communities. Our partnerships build on our environmental sustainability initiatives to improve our environmental performance and make a positive contribution to the conservation of our planet.
- The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) - Since October 2017, we have supported the WWT’s biodiversity programme through a partnership that sees our colleagues and clients volunteer at one of the organisation’s nine specialist visitor centres across the UK. Volunteers contribute to tasks such as reed clearance, hide maintenance, and removal of invasive plant species.
- Wetlands Link International - Expanding on our work with WWT in the UK, we became core supporters of Wetland Link International ('WLI') in 2023. WLI is a WWT-led support network for wetland education centres that delivers engagement activities on site with 350 members spanning six continents.
We are currently partnered with two wetland sites internationally – De Biesbosch National Park in the Netherlands and Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong with plans for a third site to be located in the Middle East. We also fund the WLI Innovation Grants scheme, with seven grants awarded to wetland centres across the globe.
- Slimbridge Wetland Growing Hub – Our partnership with WWT has enabled us to support The Slimbridge Community Growing Hub, an exciting initiative, which aims to support the creation and restoration of freshwater wetland habitats, such as floodplain meadows and ponds. Our partnership has helped to grow an estimated 20,000 plants which supply native floodplain meadow plants to habitat restoration projects and community groups.