The document summarizes Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP's 2014 responsible business report. Some key points: - They aim to conduct business ethically and with integrity, respect human rights, and make a positive impact on communities. - Focus areas are pro bono legal work, diversity & inclusion, environmental sustainability, and social programs in local communities. - Initiatives include the Stephen Lawrence scholarship, LGBT inclusion, reducing paper/water use, and a climate adaptation project. - Performance highlights are increasing pro bono hours, carbon reductions, and a high employee survey response rate.

1. An investigation
not a showcase
Responsible Business
Update Report 2014

2. Business & ethics
We want to be known for
conducting our business
ethically and with integrity.
People
We want to recruit,
develop and retain
the best people.
Communities
We aim to focus on education,
raising aspirations and
building employability skills
within the communities
where we operate.
Performance
We aim to be open and
transparent in reporting
on our responsible
business activities.
Pro bono
We can have the most
impact through giving
legal advice.
Environment
We strive to reduce our
negative environmental
impact and support climate
change adaptation projects.
To access our responsible business reports please go online
http://www.freshfields.com/cr/
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP

3. 1
The debate about the role of business in society continues
unabated. Our stakeholders, and society in general, want us
to help advance a broader social agenda and not just focus on
our own results. These expectations are reflected in corporate
reporting requirements which are becoming ever more robust
in this regard. The challenge is how, in practice, to ensure that
businesses deliver on these expectations and whether they
choose to go beyond the minimum level of compliance.
For us, minimum compliance is not enough. We want to
conduct our business in an ethical and sustainable manner.
We want to act with integrity and sensitivity to our impact
on the world around us. We want to make a real and positive
difference to the communities in which we operate. Not only
is this expected of us, it is the right thing to do.
Corporate Responsibility (CR) is not an isolated programme.
As part of our commitment to align our operations and
strategy with the 10 UN Global Compact (UNGC) principles,
we have sought to integrate CR into our business, including
through our values, culture, operations and business decisions.
This affects everything we do, from our client and mandate
acceptance decisions, to our procurement processes, to the
way we interact with the communities in which we operate.
Our ambition to go beyond minimum compliance remains
a journey and we invite you to comment in any way that
helps us move forward.
Will Lawes
Senior Partner
Senior partner’s statement

4. 2
Our firm
We share our strong commitments
to corporate responsibility with
many of our clients; we collaborate
with them on pro bono projects,
volunteering, diversity and
environmental activities.
Practices
• Antitrust, competition and trade
• Corporate
• Disputes
• Employment, pensions and benefits
• Finance
• Real estate
• Tax
Sectors
• Consumer and healthcare
• Energy and natural resources
• Financial institutions
• Global financial investors
• Infrastructure and transport
• General industrial
• Pro bono
• Real estate
• Telecoms, media and technology
We’re one of the world’s largest law firms, with over 2,500
lawyers worldwide. We provide business law and operate
as an English limited liability partnership (LLP) in all our offices
except Hong Kong, Japan and the US. We are a collegiate firm
and have no head office; all 27 offices work together in the best
interests of our clients. We want to be known as ‘the worldwide
firm’. We partner with world-class law firms with know-how
where we don’t have offices. We advise clients on transactional,
contentious and regulatory work across all sectors.
5,060employees
27offices worldwide
£1,277.8m
turnover
£1.65m
profit per equity partner (PEP)

5. 3
Winner in the Work
Inclusion category of the
Business in the Community
Responsible Business
Awards 2014
Won CSR Programme
of the Year at the
Legal Business Awards
for the Freshfields
Stephen Lawrence
Scholarship programme
Our London office
environmental management
system retained
ISO 14001
Listed as a Top 100 employer
in the 2014 Stonewall
Workplace Equality Index
Three-year climate change
adaptation partnership with
the British Red Cross began
in January 2014
£15.46m
The value of our community
and pro bono programme
30%increase in our pro
bono and community
investment hours
78%response to our global
engagement survey
2013–14
highlights

6. 4
Beyond regulatory compliance, we want to conduct – and
be known for conducting – our business ethically and with
integrity. Not only is it the right thing to do, our clients expect
it of us. Our ambition to be the leading international law firm
is inextricably linked with our leadership in this field.
Our approach to responsible business
Our strategy maximises the value CR
can bring to our business. We focus
our efforts on where we can make
the greatest difference:
• using our professional skills for
the greater good (ie pro bono);
• creating a positive impact
on the communities in which
we operate;
• being an excellent employer,
promoting inclusiveness and
diversity; and
• minimising our impact
on the environment.
Our material issues
Our report covers the issues that
are important to our firm and
our stakeholders.
Our material issues ranked as
most important by employees,
clients and our charitable and
environmental partners are those
relating to our people and our
clients. They remain unchanged:
• excellent client service;
• business ethics;
• attracting and retaining talent;
• promoting a diverse and
inclusive workforce;
• using our skills for good;
• minimising our environmental
impact; and
• collaboration.
Responsible business at Freshfields
Pro bonoBusiness
ethics
Supporting our
communities
Managing our
environmental
impact
Valuing our
people
Responsible
business

7. 5
Business & ethics
• We check new clients and
matters for their reputation,
NGO sanctions, other client
relationships and our suitability
to act; our client engagement
letters refer to the UNGC.
We take on new clients regardless
of gender, race, disability,
age or sexual orientation.
• We introduced procedures
reflecting the UK Solicitors
Regulation Authority’s
requirements in cases of
client complaints which are
implemented by our global
client partner.
• Our global privacy officer
maintains our data privacy
and protection policy with
regional variations, where law
demands it, and reports data
privacy compliance to the firm’s
information security committee.
• We have a worldwide
whistleblowing policy in place,
including a confidential hotline.
• We continue to implement
the global procurement policy
including responsible business
criteria introduced in 2013 and
have set up a team and training
across our offices to ensure our
criteria are met in procurement
decisions. This helps us to address
any issues in our supply chain, such
as the risk of forced or child labour.
Human rights and
labour standards
Promoting human rights is an
important goal for us. We were
the first international law firm to
join the UNGC and have embraced,
supported and enacted its 10
principles within our sphere
of influence ever since.
More recently, we have introduced
a number of policies to reflect the
‘Guiding Principles’ on Business
and Human Rights.
We are committed to high standards of governance and
conduct our business with the ethics and integrity expected
from a responsible and highly regulated business. We are
subject to local bar associations’ and law societies’ ethical
duties. Our policies and procedures reflect the United Nations
Global Compact (UNGC); the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights; and the International Labour Organisation’s Declaration
on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

8. 6
Gender
Gender diversity at senior level is
one of the biggest challenges we face.
We’ve developed practical initiatives
to improve the imbalance between
the number of female lawyers
we train and those who reach
partnership. Our London women’s
network aims to help address some
of these issues. Its aim is to provide
a forum for discussion, and support
women investing in their personal
and professional growth and increase
the attractiveness of a long-term
career at Freshfields for women.
Social mobility
In 2012 we launched a long-term
partnership with the Stephen
Lawrence Charitable Trust.
Part of this relationship is to
develop the Freshfields Stephen
Lawrence Scholarship Scheme, to
broaden access to the legal profession,
by addressing the disproportionate
under-representation of black men
from low-income families in top
law firms. The Scheme was formally
launched in 2013 with six students
achieving a scholarship.
Valuing our people
Supporting LGBT employees
Halo, our LGBT network, operates
across all our offices. It helps
LGBT colleagues connect with
each other, advises the firm on
LGBT issues and represents the
firm at external events.
Halo holds regular meetings,
networking and social events, and
works with clients’ LGBT networks.
LGBT employees from any of our
offices and all areas of the firm are
welcome. In 2014, we achieved one
of our long-term goals by being listed
as a Top 100 Employer in the 2014
Stonewall Workplace Equality Index,
the first magic circle firm to do so.
Engaging employees
Our annual employee engagement
survey helps us assess staff and
workplace issues. In 2013–14 we
had a 78 per cent response rate.
The survey showed that our people
feel very proud about the quality
of the work they do for clients
and they’re more willing than
ever to recommend Freshfields
as a place to work.
To be the leading international law firm, we need to recruit,
develop and retain the best people. Talent can come from
anywhere, and our employees want to work in a culture
that’s diverse and inclusive.

9. 7
Valuing our people
Legal trainee
Associate
Partner
Business services
Other fee earners
Male FemaleKey:
55
46
75
67
12
45
54
25
33
88
*Figure refers to average number of employees excluding contingency staff and contractors.
This data has been independently assured by Deloitte LLP.
Global
Employee profile by gender* (per cent)
London
DACEE (Germany and Austria)
Asia
ROCE (Rest of Central Europe)
MENA
USA
1,931
1,344
1,005
85
269
426
*Core employee numbers include employees on maternity and client secondment,
and whose contract types are permanent, fixed-term or self-employed.
Global workforce by region*

10. 8
We take proactive steps to shape
the areas in which we work
especially around:
• the rule of law;
• access to justice; and
• work to support the Millennium
Development Goals.
The work our pro bono programme
takes on ranges from one-off legal
interventions on important areas
of law, to supporting the legal needs
of global NGOs tasked with assisting
the world’s most vulnerable people
and hundreds of different matters
in between.
Over the past year we have seen our
programme reach over 56,000 hours
– the most pro bono hours we have
ever recorded.
We are legal adviser to Save the
Children International, a global
child rights NGO that operates
in over 120 countries. The legal
issues it faces are multi-faceted
and multi-jurisdictional which,
as a global law firm, we are able
to support fully.
Pro bono
We have a professional responsibility to use our legal
knowledge for the public good. We have the most impact
when we do what we do best: giving legal advice.
Homelessness
Our London office has a longstanding
focus on homelessness. We staff a
housing law clinic at Tower Hamlets
Law Centre (and send a trainee to
their housing team on secondment).
We also work closely with Shelter,
both on casework involving
homeless children and in strategic
interventions at the Court of Appeal
and Supreme Court. Last year we
were awarded ‘CSR Initiative of the
Year’ in the British Legal Awards
for our groundbreaking pro bono
work tackling youth homelessness.
2013–14 highlights
We worked on
483 matters for
292 clients.
We recorded 56,323
pro bono hours,
an all-time record
for the firm.
1,100 lawyers worked on pro bono cases, 42 per cent
of average fee-earner headcount

11. 9
Discover Your Talent (Brussels)
An annual one-day training
session to help young people from
disadvantaged neighbourhoods with
CV writing, interview techniques,
discovering personal strengths, using
social media and presentation skills.
START Foundation
(Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt)
A series of workshops which help
young people from immigrant
backgrounds understand more
about careers in law and encourage
a more diverse group to consider
the legal profession.
Ready for Work (London)
A work experience, training and
job coaching programme, run in
partnership with Business in the
Community, which aims to break
the cycle of homelessness. Winner
in the Work Inclusion category
of the Business in the Community
Responsible Business Awards 2014.
‘Ban the Box’ (London)
We believe businesses can play a large
part in cutting reoffending through
employment which is why we became
the first law firm to support Business
in the Community’s ‘Ban the Box’
campaign. The campaign encourages
employers to remove the tick-box
asking about criminal convictions
from their application forms, moving
disclosure to later in the recruitment
process so candidates are judged
on their suitability for the role
and skills first.
Legal Outreach (New York)
A week-long internship for
exceptional high school students
from underserved communities
during which they learn professional
skills through law related activities,
including a mock trial and due
diligence exercises.
Un jour, un métier (Paris)
An annual discovering business
day for a class of pupils from
a disadvantaged Parisian suburb
followed by a trip to the Paris
Courts of Justice and a two-week
work experience placement.
European Law Students’
Association (Rome)
Our Rome office has partnered
with European Law Students’
Association (ELSA), an international,
non-political and non-profit-making
organisation run by and for students.
ELSA offers law students (including
recent graduates) a platform
to develop their existing skills,
acquire new skills and meet fellow
students and legal professionals
throughout Europe, hosting
a number of academic and
professional events each year.
Communities
At Freshfields, the global theme of our community
investment programme is social inclusion. Our projects
focus on education, raising aspirations and building
employability skills within the communities where
we operate. Examples from across our offices show
how we work to achieve this.

12. 10
Our carbon impact
Our biggest carbon impacts are from
energy in our buildings and business
travel. We aim to reduce our carbon
footprint and the impact we have
on the environment.
Adapting to climate change
The firm has been carbon neutral
since 2007. We buy offsets from
projects that provide social and
economic benefits as well as
environmental ones.
Our climate change adaptation
project, as voted for by staff, started
with the British Red Cross in January
2014. The three-year project will
benefit over 60,000 local people in
Bangladesh by preparing for natural
disasters and building resilience.
We are also integrating this
relationship across the firm through
pro bono assistance and employee
activities such as first aid training.
Environment
One of the greatest positive impacts we have on the environment
is through our legal advice. Our energy and natural resources
sector group brings together over 100 partners and a wide group
of associates from across our network of offices who regularly
advise in the wide area of energy and natural resources, one of
which is the Low Carbon group. This group helps clients meet
their climate change goals.
Using resources responsibly
Global paper purchased Global waste disposal1
Global water use2
511
tonnes
1,808
tonnes
100,419m3
1. This data has been independently assured by Deloitte LLP.
2. This year’s data only counts once water has been withdrawn and returned as waste water.

13. 11
Key performance indicators
Indicator 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 Targets May 2015
Total number of employees 5,266 4,859 5,060 N/A
Female partners (per cent) 12 12 124
N/A
Gross carbon footprint
per capita (tonnes CO2e)1
4.79 4.70 4.534
4.50
Gross direct and indirect
greenhouse gas emissions –
scopes 1 and 2; fossil fuels and
refrigerants; electricity (tonnes
carbon dioxide equivalent – CO2e)2
15,646 15,893 14,6264
14,216
Total gross indirect greenhouse
gas emissions – scope 3; business
travel (tonnes CO2e)2
9,654 11,325 13,2494
10,288
Gross carbon footprint
(tonnes CO2e)3
25,299 27,214 27,8764
24,504
Employees involved in pro bono
and community investment
programmes (per cent)
39 37 394
50
Total hours contributed to
pro bono and community
investment programmes
51,498 60,878 79,1054
N/A
Total community contributions (£m)
including management costs
8.96 10.48 15.464
N/A
Participation in UK
payroll giving (per cent)
5 5 5 10
Turnover (£m) 1,177 1,229 1,278 N/A
Profit per equity Partner (PEP) (£m) 0.94 0.94 1.65 N/A
1. Per capita figures include contractors. 2. 2011-12 and 12-13 data has been restated using DEFRA’s carbon factor. 3. Calculated by Corporate
Citizenship using DEFRA’s carbon factor. 4. This data has been independently assured by Deloitte LLP. Data was estimated for six sites.
Parts of the data were estimated for electricity (Washington, Amsterdam); fuel diesel (Milan); and gas (Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich).

14. 12
UN Global Compact (UNGC)
We have been a proud participant of the UNGC since
March 2009. As a result, we are required to report on
how we have advanced the 10 principles with respect to
human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption
within our sphere of influence. This Responsible Business
Update Report 2014 also acts as our annual communication
on progress.
Issue UNGC principle
Human rights Principle 1 – Businesses should support and respect the
protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
Principle 2 – Businesses should make sure that they are
not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labour Principle 3 – Businesses should uphold the freedom
of association and the effective recognition of the right
to collective bargaining.
Principle 4 – Businesses should uphold the elimination
of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.
Principle 5 – Businesses should uphold the effective
abolition of child labour.
Principle 6 – Businesses should uphold the elimination
of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Environment Principle 7 – Businesses should support a precautionary
approach to environmental challenges.
Principle 8 – Businesses should undertake initiatives
to promote greater environmental responsibility.
Principle 9 – Businesses should encourage the
development and diffusion of environmentally
friendly technologies.
Anti-corruption Principle 10 – Businesses should work against corruption
in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

15. 13
Reporting and independent assurance
This report includes data covering the period 1 May 2013
to 30 April 2014. For more information please see our Basis
of Reporting, which outlines the scope and calculation
methodology of each of our KPIs www.freshfields.com/cr/.
This document also identifies the indicators where
methodological or estimation changes have impacted
upon our reported KPIs.
We have sought external assurance
for our CR reports since 2007–08.
Deloitte LLP has issued an unqualified
opinion using limited level assurance
in accordance with ISAE3000 on
selected performance indicators
contained within this Report.
A copy of their Independent
Assurance Statement is available
at www.freshfields.com/cr/
External Recognition 2013–14
Awarded ‘CSR Initiative of the Year’ in the
British Legal Awards for our pro bono work
tackling youth homelessness
Winner in the Work Inclusion category
for our Ready for Work programme (London)
Listed as a Top 100 employer in the 2014
Stonewall Workplace Equality Index
London Office Operations only.
LRQA are our UKAS accredited assessor

16. freshfields.com
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This material is for general information only and is not intended to provide legal advice.
© Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, January 2015, 02262