Corporate Responsibility

Steadfast in our support of the business and public sector community, we strive to continuously build our reputation and trust as thought leaders with our existing and potential clients, industry colleagues and partners by increasing our participation in key industry events, conferences and groups. We achieve this through:-

• Hosting, sponsoring and presenting at periodic industry and technical update events and conferences- facilitating knowledge sharing with our industry colleagues
• Entrepreneurship and Business Award Sponsorship
• Partner representation on various industry expert committees, regulatory authority committees and industry associations.

Our team are passionate about undertaking pro-bono, fundraising and volunteer work for our charity partners and charity clients.

We collectively provide thousands of hours of legal advice per annum on a pro bono basis (free or discounted) to charities and those in need.

Many of our staff members are actively involved in work for a number of charities. This is through fundraising, volunteer work and sitting on boards of management and committees for charities.

Great Limerick Run. We take part in the Great Limerick Run. Between training sessions, fundraisers and a post-run BBQ, it is an event thoroughly enjoy by all every year!

Pieta House “Darkness Into Light” Walk. Our Employees take part in the “Darkness Into Light” Walks nationwide to raise much needed funds and awareness for suicide prevention.

Run in the Dark. Our team run in the dark, wind and rain each year raising funds to find a cure for paralysis in our lifetime. They join 25,000 people worldwide across 7 continents as darkness sweeps the globe each November to Run in the Dark, with all proceeds going to the Mark Pollock Trust.

Kinia Reading Buddy Programme. Kinia is an Irish charity that provides reading support to children in Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) across Ireland.  We partner with a Kinia selected school and our employee volunteers and children read along together, one-to-one, focusing on improving literacy, work, reading and comprehension skills. This scheme builds children's confidence in themselves and encourages them to believe in their own abilities.  

We are all a product of our community. Where we live, work and raise our families is at the heart of our quality of life – for our team, for our clients and for all people and businesses that we interact with. We are staunch advocates of supporting each other through our community in all walks of life.

Transition Year Programme. Since 2017 we have provided a Transition Year (TY) Law Day in local all girls DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) disadvantaged schools with a focus on women in the workplace and female role models schools each year, along with two week long structured TY programmes to encourage access to legal careers paths to students of all genders and socio-economic backgrounds. This commitment has been recognised recently when we were shortlisted in the prestigious Chambers Ireland CSR Awards 2019 in the Community Programme category.

Boards and Committee Assistance. Our partners and solicitors contribute to their local community by sitting on various Boards, including boards of management of local schools, sports clubs, charities and fund raising committees.

Workshops for Students. Some of our solicitors and partners regularly visit local secondary schools to host workshops for students, not only encouraging them to consider professions in the legal industry, but also to highlight how the law is relevant to their daily lives and to promote awareness of legal processes and constitutional principles and values in Ireland.

Scholarships. Dr Gordon Holmes, our founding partner, introduced scholarship awards many years ago and we are proud to continue this tradition. We award an annual scholarship to a University of Limerick student studying the LLB in Law Plus or Bachelor of Arts in Law and Accounting. We also are a supporter of the Leaders of LIT Student Scholarship programme.

Careers Fairs. Careers fairs are a great opportunity for us to make personal contact with students who are interested in exploring opportunities with our firm. We ensure that a range of personnel including HR, Solicitors, Trainees and Interns are available to speak on a one-to one basis with students at the major careers fairs held by colleges across the country.

Street Law. Many of our trainees take part on the Law Society of Ireland’s Street Law clinic. Trainee solicitors teaching TY students about law and the legal in a number of ‘Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools’ (DEIS) schools and conducting a mock trial at the Law Society.

International Women’s Day. We host annual International Women’s Day employee and client events to recognise and promote change and equality, particularly in the legal industry.

Novas Christmas Toy Appeal. Every year Novas' Christmas Toy Appeal supports over 1,000 children, to help ensure they wake up happy on Christmas morning. The Toy Appeal operates flexible gifting options including buying, physical gifts, donating online or buying a retail voucher. We support this appeal each year at Christmas time. 

Kinia Reading Buddy Programme. Kinia is an Irish charity that provides reading support to children in Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) across Ireland.  We partner with a Kinia selected school and our employee volunteers and children read along together, one-to-one, focusing on improving literacy, work, reading and comprehension skills. This scheme builds children's confidence in themselves and encourages them to believe in their own abilities.  

Workplace CR is a key focus for the firm and one of our key goals as part of our 2025 plan is to continue to make the firm a great place to work. Workplace CR is essential to ensure employees can develop to their full potential and to create a happy and supportive environment.

Our investment in our people was recognised by the awarding of the Best Employer: Talent Development and Workplace Wellness Award at the Limerick Regional Business Awards 2017.

We are proud to be a signatory to the Law Society of Ireland’s Professional Wellbeing Charter. We pledge to lead, uphold and promote the Charter commitments to improve professional wellbeing in our workplace. We commit to improving leadership and championing behaviours, skills and practices that promote and enable professional wellbeing at all levels, and across all roles, in the workplace, and:-

• Work to create a healthy workplace culture characterised by behaviours and practices that promote effective communication and active listening so the office experience is one of trust, respect, honesty, fairness, compassion and psychological safety
• Build an environment where leaders promote professional wellbeing and take appropriate action to protect employees’ mental health including holding unprofessional behaviours to account, with consequences
• Work to reduce stigma associated with mental health in the workplace
• Build employee and management capacity to support employees’ psychological and mental health concerns and be able to respond effectively to these as needed
• Strive to create a work environment where tasks and responsibilities can be accomplished within a realistic timeframe and that promotes work/life balance
• Encourage and support employees in the development of their social and emotional needs, as well as their job skills
• Nurture a work environment where employees derive a sense of meaning and purpose from their work and are appropriately recognised and rewarded for their work efforts
• Ensure policies, procedures and processes are in place that safeguard employee psychological safety and mental health.

Some of our specific initiatives include:-

• Employee recognition through our “Together Awards”
• Mental health and wellness supports
• Supports for professional development, education and training
• Flexi-time hours
• Remote working
• VHI Employee Assistance Programme
• Diversity and Inclusion. Signatory to the Law Society’s Gender Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Charter, a public commitment by legal practices to promote the values of diversity, equality and inclusion. More information on our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion can be viewed here
• International Women’s Day. We host annual International Women’s Day employee and client events to recognise and promote change and equality, particularly in the legal industry.

We closely align with the principles of ISO14001 to ensure that we deliver sustainability in every aspect of our work. In our CR policy, which is part of our Q9000 Quality Standard policies, we commit to operating our business in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. As an organisation delivering primarily services, we have limited environmental impact. However, we recycle where appropriate and constantly look at ways of minimising our material waste.

We strive to make a positive contribution to the environment through a number of strategic activities, including:-

• Promoting environmental responsibility and awareness amongst employees, encouraging partners and suppliers to be environmentally aware
• Understanding the environmental status of goods and services and ensure that they have the lowest possible carbon footprint
• Pro-active management of waste production, nearly 100% of our waste is recycled and reused instead of being sent to landfill. This includes recycling of all paper, recycling and composting of food and other wastes, and recycling print cartridges, computers (donate to Camara, a charity who re-uses technology to assist in education in disadvantaged areas of the world), printers, mobile telephones (donate to Jack and Jill Foundation), chargers and batteries
• Responsible employee travel. Employees are encouraged to avail of the bike to work scheme, encouraged to car share in fuel efficient, low emission vehicles and we promote the use of public transport where possible to reduce our carbon footprint
• Print double sided wherever possible
• Lower electricity usage/. We have policies in relation to switching off electrical appliances and lighting when not in use. We utilise movement sensors in infrequently used areas such as storerooms, toilets and corridors to prevent lights being left on unnecessarily. We changed our lighting to LED lights which contain no toxic materials and are 100% recyclable. Staff are advised to turn their computer monitors off if they are away from their desks for more than 10 minutes, and turn off both PCs and monitors at the plug at the end of the day. Our printers and photocopiers are turned on only when required, and are set to go to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity
• Paper light policies and initiatives
• Plants are used in our offices as a means of oxygenating air in the work place and removing carbon dioxide
• We take part in the Team Limerick Clean Up initiative, which is a community initiative to clean up Limerick, each year
• Maintain awareness of emerging developments in energy efficient & renewable methods and materials, and implementing these where a positive environmental impact can be identified
• Staff receive internal training on environmental measures and reminders are regularly issued through training and updates.