Herbert Smith becomes the first law firm to achieve best practice standard in employee volunteering

Herbert Smith has become the first law firm to be awarded the Investing in Volunteers for Employers accreditation by the UK Volunteering Forum. The award is a further recognition of the firm's commitment to volunteering in our local community.

After nine months of assessment with Volunteering England, our programme was deemed to meet the 10 nationally recognised indicators which included areas such as communication, risk management, resources and quality of opportunities.

Investing in Volunteers for Employers (IiVE) is an award given to UK based organisations, recognising commitment to best practice in employer supported volunteering. It is designed for any size of organisation that supports its employees to volunteer and is flexible enough to recognise the full range of volunteering that may be offered by an employer.

Over 27 projects and their volunteers were assessed and interviewed as part of the process, with recognition given for the scale and depth of volunteering at Herbert Smith. In 2009, 44% of the London office took part in at least one of the many opportunities we offer. These range from mentoring programmes with local schoolchildren, careers and employability workshops and free legal advice to members of the public and to charities and NGOs.

Corporate Responsibility Partner, Adam Johnson, commented:

"It is not enough to simply offer a menu of volunteering opportunities, sit back and hope that people get involved. In order for individuals, the firm and the community to benefit from employee volunteering, the programme needs to be well managed. We need to measure the commitment of our people, align that commitment with either their personal or professional development priorities, and communicate our successes. Achieving the Investors in Volunteering standard is a demonstration of the just how much work our CR team and our volunteer coordinators put into ensuring our legal and non-legal volunteering initiatives meet these objectives. Congratulations to the many partners and staff who help to make our programme a success."

Notes to editors

• Herbert Smith LLP is an international legal practice with 1400 lawyers (including over 250 partners) and a network of offices in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It has a formal alliance with leading German firm Gleiss Lutz and leading Dutch and Belgian firm Stibbe. www.herbertsmith.com

• For further information please contact Sarah Robertson in the communications team on +44 (0)20 7466 3139 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or corporate responsibility co-ordinator Samantha Sparrow on +44 (0)20 7466 3581, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .