Slavery and human trafficking statement 2018

For the financial year ending 30 April 2018

Introduction

This statement has been published in accordance with the requirements of section 54(1) Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act). It sets out the steps taken by Browne Jacobson LLP during the financial year ended 30 April 2018 to ensure modern slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in any part of our business or any of our supply chains.

Browne Jacobson LLP has a zero tolerance approach to modern slavery of any kind within our organisation and supply chains. We do not believe any incidences of modern slavery took place within our business this year. We remain committed to improving our practices to enable us to identify and eradicate any modern slavery within our supply chains.

Our structure and business as at 30 April 2018

Browne Jacobson LLP is a national law firm supplying legal services, advising clients across the private and public sectors. We are a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (registered number OC306448). We are owned by our 95 members. Our head office is based in Nottingham and we also have offices in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Exeter. We currently have 992 employees, which includes 143 partners. For the financial year ended 30 April 2018 we had an annual turnover of £73m.

Our policies

As reported in our previous statements, our internal policies are reviewed to ensure our compliance with the Act, which included our Anti Modern Slavery Policy and Whistleblowing Policy.

Training

Our Anti Modern Slavery Policy applies to all persons working for us or on our behalf in any capacity.

All staff have been made aware of our Anti Modern Slavery Policy and Whistleblowing Policy and these are available on our intranet for all staff to access.

Senior managers in our central teams have also attended a seminar on modern slavery and human trafficking and how this could affect our firm and our suppliers.

We have also sent firmwide communications regarding modern slavery and human trafficking to raise further awareness.

Our supply chains

We are continually reviewing how we engage the services of our suppliers and monitor them. As a provider of legal services our suppliers support the operation of our business and very broadly fall into the following general categories:

• consumables
• counsel and experts
• employee benefits
• food and beverage
• telecommunications and information technology
• utilities.

Ongoing and future actions

As part of our ongoing firm wide risk assessment, we continue to monitor our procurement process and will be introducing specific measures to ensure that our obligations under the Act are passed through our supply chain. These include:

Continuing to develop a process to ensure that appropriate contractual provisions are incorporated into new supplier contracts and renewals of existing contracts, which require a supplier to take reasonable steps to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in its business or in its supply chains.

A requirement for all new suppliers to confirm whether or not they have effective procedures and controls in place to ensure that their business and supply chain is free from slavery or human trafficking and they comply with all anti-slavery laws.

Requesting existing suppliers complete an integrity statement at the time of their next renewal.

Continuing to provide advice to and work with our clients on how to eradicate the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in their businesses and supply chains.

Browne Jacobson LLP has not been informed of any incidents of modern slavery or human trafficking during the financial year, but would investigate any allegations should they arise and take appropriate action in accordance with our policies and procedures. In the event of such an event occurring or an allegation being made, the matter will be initially reported to our Risk & Compliance team to determine appropriate action.

Board approval

We have agreed management responsibility for this statement and our Operations Board has approved and fully supports these initiatives.

Signed by:

Iain Blatherwick Designated Member Browne Jacobson LLP

Date: 26 September 2018