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Overview
We want Boult Wade Tennant to be a responsible business. We are committed to working practices, which take into account the wellbeing of our people, our environmental impact, as well as creating a diverse and inclusive work place. We want to make a positive difference to local communities and communities across the world through our charity work, community investment and pro bono work.
The UN Sustainable Development Goals underpin our business strategy. Acting responsibly and sustainably is at the heart of our culture. Through the choices we make, to the advice we give clients, we know that we can make a difference to local communities as well as those further afield.
Our People
We prioritise the health and wellbeing of every member of the Boult Wade Tennant team. Our benefits package includes access to third parties for support and assistance including: VitalityHealth, SimplyHealth and Denplan. Additionally, we have recently introduced an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provided by Health Assured. Working from home during the pandemic has created both new challenges and opportunities. To help people keep active, in touch with colleagues and stay mentally strong through this testing period we have rolled out a programme of online activities including: mindfulness classes, HIIT training, Pilates and a range of fun socials such as: chocolate tasting, cocktail making, game shows, cooking classes, art classes, book clubs, film clubs and the list goes on.
Wellbeing
Maintaining the wellbeing of our people is of critical importance to Boult. We have always prided ourselves on our warm and collegiate culture, and in supporting our people’s physical and mental wellbeing. In 2017 we trained a group of staff to become Wellbeing First Aiders and we established the Wellness Support Group in 2018. The purpose of the group is to assist in providing wellbeing support to anybody in the firm, acting as a point of contact and signposting for anyone experiencing a mental health issue or suffering emotional distress. In 2022 we signed up to the Mindful Business Charter to demonstrate our commitment to reducing unnecessary stress in the workplace and actively identifying solutions to help people better handle stressful situations. In 2023 we have established the Feel Good Club which encourages people to talk and discuss what’s on their mind whist doing fun activities.
Diversity and Inclusivity
Our objective is to create a firm where staff can be themselves.
Boult Wade Tennant is committed to equal opportunities and to enhancing diversity. We don’t expect our staff to be or think the same. Instead we think diversity and inclusion is a contributing factor to the ongoing future success of the firm. It makes decision making more varied and life more interesting.
We aim to create an inclusive environment where people feel valued and respected, connected to the firm as well as to their colleagues. This is an incredibly important factor in achieving our ambition. We aim to create a supportive working environment where everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. We encourage transparency, trust and respect. Our HR strategy ensures that we are fair to all employees and continually monitor the effectiveness of our inclusion and diversity policy.
We have become one of twenty new partners of the General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion (GCD&I) https://www.gcdandi.com/our-partners/ 2021-2022. The GCD&I objectives for greater equity, diversity and inclusion across the legal industry are perfectly aligned with our own strategic priorities in these areas. We look forward to working with them this year.
We are proud to be members of IP Inclusive and our COO, Andrew Little, and Partner, Matthew Spencer, are active members of the IP Inclusive Senior Leader’s Think Tank. Reflective of our vision and goals for a more inclusive future, we are one of the founding signatories to the ‘Leaders’ Pledge’. This pledge is a personal commitment by senior management to work with colleagues to create positive change in the areas of diversity and inclusion. The eight point pledge will act as a guide for implementing our D&I policy and will be reviewed and updated as we work towards our long term goals in this area. Further details about the pledge can be found here. The pledge has been personally signed by Nick McLeish (Senior Partner), Alex Frost (Managing Partner), Andrew Little (COO), Susi Fish (Partner (D&I) and co-lead of the Women in IP committee for IP Inclusive) and Matthew Spencer (Partner (D&I)).
Social Mobility
The firm is a corporate partner of the Sutton Trust, a charity championing social mobility through educational programmes, research and policy influence. Like the Trust, Boult Wade Tennant believes everyone should have access to a career in IP law no matter what their background. We want to challenge the perception that law is elitist and help generate interest in the profession from a wider community.
In Spring 2021 we hosted our first virtual Pathways to Law event for Sutton Trust candidates. The programme of trade mark events included panel discussions, case studies, brand exercises and introductory sessions to IP and trade marks in particular. This event was so successful we will be repeating the programme in the Summer for those interested in finding out more about becoming a patent attorney.
Environment, Social and Governance (ESG)
We care about the environment. We are committed to minimising, and where possible eliminating, our environmental impact.
Environmental sustainability is an important issue which is why we have set ourselves ambitious environmental targets. We are determined to reduce our carbon footprint and help support businesses that share our values. We aim to reduce our carbon emission by focusing on power saving technologies and increasing the efficiency of our heating, water and lighting systems.
We have recently partnered with One Tribe Global, an organisation that works to protect the rainforest and fight the climate crisis. With every invoice the firm issues, One Tribe will pay their conservation charities to protect one acre of rainforest. To see how many trees we have protected so far please visit One Tribe.
The pandemic and the necessity to work from home has had an unprecedented effect on how we work. One of the positives outcomes of this change has been an acceleration in our paperlite strategy, with all our staff working efficiently and effectively online. .
We have created a group of volunteers from across the firm that is chaired by the Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Little. It is this group’s task to ensure we drive forward our social impact work. We want to empower people whether they live in local communities or in communities around the world.
Pro Bono
We are proud of our long history of providing pro bono to those that need our services. We believe it is an opportunity for our attorneys to use their knowledge and skills to help the wider community. Over the years we have worked with many worthy charities and innovative social organisations and will continue to do so in the future.