Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie has today released its Annual Sustainability Report, which shares the progress made by the Firm in 2022 on its prioritized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The report also reconfirms the Firm's commitment as an active participant of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) to uphold the Ten Principles on human and labor rights, the environment and anti-corruption.
The Ten Principles and the Firm's prioritized SDGs are reflected in Baker McKenzie's global strategy. For Baker McKenzie, 2022 was a year of consolidation, focusing on values and strategy, capitalizing on what the Firm has already accomplished to continue to make progress on the objectives that it has set itself as an organization.
In 2022, Baker McKenzie continued its focus on social issues at the center of the Firm’s culture of inclusion, diversity and equity, helping people bring their authentic selves to work and working toward achieving its global gender aspirational targets (GATs) of 40:40:20 by July 2025. Baker McKenzie also maintained its focus on race and ethnicity, LGBTQ+ rights, social mobility and disability, and through the Firm’s award-winning pro bono practice, continued to give a voice to the underrepresented, notably to advance access to justice and children's rights.
The report also demonstrates how Baker McKenzie consolidated its environmental efforts in 2022, advancing its environmental and renewable energy strategy to meet its global carbon targets. Baker McKenzie also committed to setting near-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative and started examining its supply chain in greater detail to drive improved environmental performance through its supply chain.
In parallel, Baker McKenzie continues to support clients to achieve their own sustainability and energy transition goals, and believes strongly in the importance of collaborating across the legal profession, and across disciplines and industries to share expertise, knowledge and resources — in order to advance the SDGs and achieve transformational change on a broader scale.
Finally, the report also highlights the resilience of the Firm’s Kyiv office and Ukrainian colleagues following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and their courage and determination, including through continuing to provide first-rate legal advice to clients who are contributing to rebuild Ukraine. The Firm’s priority has been and remains the safety and well-being of Ukrainian colleagues and their families.
Commenting on the release of the report, Milton Cheng, Global Chair, Baker McKenzie, said, “Against a sometimes turbulent backdrop, our people have consistently focused on bringing Baker McKenzie’s values to life. We have continued to make progress on the sustainability-related objectives that we’ve set ourselves as an organization, and we stayed the course on our global strategy more broadly with intention, accountability and transparency. This is how we believe we can make real progress in creating a sustainable business and contributing to a more sustainable world.
He continued, “Our global footprint provides us with a distinct advantage in that we have a culture where we understand and empathize with people right across the world. This makes us a stronger, more diverse organization, with greater awareness of different views and perspectives. It is these values that have helped us make progress in our efforts in aligning our sustainability strategy with our prioritized SDGs. I am proud to see how our Firm has fared in our latest sustainability report against the various metrics we have set ourselves, and our entire leadership team is firmly of the belief that if we stay true to our values, we will continue building a law firm to be proud of.”
Alyssa Auberger, Chief Sustainability Officer, Baker McKenzie, added, “At Baker McKenzie, sustainability is about leveraging our collective talent to support our people, clients, communities, and environment to stand the test of time together. We recognize that sustainability represents both an opportunity and a responsibility. As business and law become inexorably more values-driven, it is crucial for law firms to listen to their stakeholders — including their people, their clients and wider industry organizations, and their local communities to define and align their business to the values that are important to them. We focus our efforts on remaining true to the values that are important to us and to our stakeholders — by aligning to an established strategy to strengthen and consolidate performance year over year — and that is why we chose “consolidation” as a key theme for this year’s report.
She continued, “Every year when we prepare our annual sustainability report, we take stock of what we’ve done to advance our sustainability strategy over the past year and this gives us an opportunity to take a step back and look at our approach and how it has helped drive our efforts. The actions and efforts showcased in this year’s sustainability report demonstrate that the intentional approach we have taken to sustainability at Baker McKenzie was the right one for us and one that will allow us to create long-term value for our stakeholders and for us as an organization. Our sustainability strategy remains strong and our decision to consolidate our efforts behind it holds true.”