GOVERNANCE
GOVERNANCE
GOVERNANCE
Governance is the framework by which organisations are directed, controlled and held to account. At Womble Bond Dickinson, this starts with our Ethical Framework which sits at the heart of our culture and encompasses our values and the ethical standards to which we hold ourselves in everything we do.
We take our ethical responsibilities seriously and strive for best practice in how we conduct ourselves and our business. By upholding strong governance and the rule of law, we apply the highest standards of professionalism, business ethics, and risk management to build sustainable practices across the business and long‑term trust with our clients and stakeholders.
We leverage our legal expertise, operational policies, and unique position in society to expand access to justice through our pro bono work, enabling us to support charities and community organisations otherwise unable to access legal advice. Through our pro bono work, we play an active role in supporting SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, specifically 16.3 - Access to Justice.
Key statistics
Highlights from FY 2025/26
Strong structures and accredited systems
Proactive risk management
Transparency and Accountability (data)
Participation
Our wider contribution: pro bono
Integrating responsible business
UN Sustainable Development Goal
Gold in EcoVadis 2025 – ranking us in the top 3% of companies reporting globally
hours of pro bono (legal) hours delivered in financial year (FY) 2025/26
'reponsible business hours' recorded in FY 2025/26
Good governance builds a culture of trust, transparency and fairness, and is a fundamental driver in making an organisation a great place to work. A highlight of FY 2025/26 was achieving Great Place to Work certification for the first time. To be certified, we needed 65% or more of our people to provide a positive experience of working here. In fact, our average was 73% positive. 71% of our colleagues completed the survey representing a high level of engagement and a clear willingness to share honest feedback about experiences of working at the firm. The Great Place to Work team have told us this is a strong first-time result for a business of our size, and a solid foundation to build on.
We achieved EcoVadis Gold Medal for the third consecutive year, ranking in the top 3% of all companies reporting globally. This recognises the strong progress we continue to make in the areas of ethics, labour and human rights, the environment and sustainable procurement.
We recognise the impact we have on our people, our wider stakeholders and society, and a key project this year has been embedding sustainable procurement practices across the firm; all new and renewing suppliers are now issued with our Supplier Standards Questionnaire which incorporates our Supplier Code of Conduct, helping to set clear expectations around responsible and ethical business behaviour from the outset. In parallel, we delivered targeted training to WBD colleagues acting as contract managers, improving understanding of the procurement process and reinforcing the role procurement plays in supporting our responsible business objectives. This approach is intended to help drive more consistent, risk‑aware decision‑making and will continue to be rolled out during FY 2026/27.
Our Partner Lead for Responsible Business, Sally Dallow, was nominated for, and won, ESG: Private Practice Champion of the Year at the 2026 Legal 500 UK ESG Awards. We were also shortlisted in six other awards including Best Law Firm Advisory Team: Sustainable Finance.
Strong governance ensures that responsible business is not sidelined but integrated into core decision making and our relationships with clients. Watch our video with Chris McLauchlan, Partner sharing his experience of putting values and responsible business at the front and centre of client relationships.
Strong structures and accreditations
Foundational to our governance are strong structures and processes. In addition to our DEI accreditations, we have the following externally accredited systems:
ISO 9001
Quality Management System
Our Risk and Best Practice team, supported by colleagues across the firm, successfully secured ISO 9001 re‑certification during the year. This achievement provides external validation that our approach to quality management remains effective, well‑governed and aligned with the requirements of the ISO 9001 standard, offering reassurance to clients, colleagues and wider stakeholders.
ISO 14001
Environmental Management System
We have maintained our accreditation, recognising an effective environmental management system is in place. This provides a framework for continuous improvement in our environmental performance.
ISO 45001
Occupational Health and Safety Management System
We achieved ISO 45001 certification for the first time in FY 2025/26. Our commitment to creating an environment where colleagues feel safe, supported and able to reach their potential was highlighted during our assessment, with our wellbeing work receiving special mention as ‘a commendable practice'. This work involved establishing Health and Safety representatives in each of our office locations, joining our existing network of 60 Fire Wardens and 34 Physical First Aiders.
ISO 27001
Information Security Management System
We achieved re‑certification to ISO 27001, confirming that our information security framework and controls continue to be rigorously assessed against internationally recognised standards. This accreditation underlines our ongoing focus on protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of client data.
Cyber Essentials Plus
We also renewed our cyber security standard certification, reinforcing our commitment to defending against cyber threats and maintaining the highest standards of security, safeguarding both firm and client data.
In addition over FY 2025/26:
Our Internal Audit team delivered a comprehensive Regulatory Compliance Audit Programme, giving assurance against SRA requirements, policies, procedures and quality expectations, while identifying areas where processes and controls can be further strengthened.
To test our business readiness, resilience, continuity and response procedures, we carried out various business continuity tests, including a cyber incident text, the outcomes of which were positive and provided high levels of assurance.
We invested in due diligence software and completed phase 1 implementation to support our due diligence process with third party suppliers.
Proactive risk management
Alongside our annual risk and best‑practice training programme, which covers economic crime, information security, fraud and ethics, we take a structured, firm‑wide approach to identifying, assessing and managing risk. This includes carrying out regular enterprise‑wide risk assessments across areas such as bribery and corruption, modern slavery (read our latest statement here), anti-money laundering and sanctions, supported by internal audits and control reviews to test effectiveness and identify opportunities for improvement. Insights from this work feed directly into the ongoing development of our policies, procedures and controls, forming a continuous improvement programme informed by feedback from across the business.
We provide oversight and transparency through an annual risk report to the Board, highlighting emerging risks, the effectiveness of controls and priorities for the year ahead. During the year, we also developed a new strategic risk register with the Board to support informed decision‑making.
Our internal Risk Matters newsletter reinforces this approach by sharing key updates, regulatory developments and practical guidance to promote awareness and engagement across the firm.
Over the past year, 98% of colleagues completed our Economic Crime Essentials training, demonstrating our commitment to the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the focus on ethical behaviour and tackling corruption.
The training reinforced legal and regulatory responsibilities, reinforced our clear commitment to preventing bribery, corruption and fraud, and helped people recognise warning signs and understand how to raise concerns. This supports a culture where speaking up, acting with integrity and doing the right thing are part of how we work every day.
Transparency and Accountability (data)
Over FY 2025/26, we have taken steps to introduce more rigour in our data capture, analysis and reporting to drive greater transparency and accountability:
- We fully onboarded and embedded our new carbon accounting platform, delivered by Normative.
- We continued to expand the data capture in our social value platform.
- We rolled out our new 'Responsible Business Hours' initiative, recording over 10,000 hours across the financial year. The initiative means that all colleagues can now capture time spent contributing to our strategic objective to lead the way on responsible business, including diversity, equity and inclusion, giving us better data to recognise and reward the contributions made.
Take a look at our full list of publicly available responsible business key performance indicators (KPIs) here.
Participation
We recognise that participation is a key element of good governance, ensuring that decision-making is inclusive, transparent and accountable. To support this, we have an Internal Communications Policy which outlines how we will communicate with our people. Our commitment to ensuring two-way dialogue is delivered in a variety of ways, including through our business briefings, our internal communications platform, ‘The Hub’, and regular Office Head emails.
Some of the groups and forums we actively engage and consult with across the business include:
Our Employee Forum
Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) networks and DEI Forum
Our Partner Representative Group
Our Environmental Representatives, Environmental Review Team and Net Zero Working Group
Our Wellbeing Champions, Mental Health First Aiders, Grief First Aiders and Menopause Champions
Our Responsible Business Working Group and our Responsible Business Steering Group
Our wider contribution: pro bono
We support access to justice through our pro bono work, enabling charities and community organisations to obtain legal advice they would otherwise be unable to access.
Over FY 2025/26, we supported 26 pro bono instructions across the firm, with a total of 838.5 hours contributed. A highlight was helping youth charity City Reach establish a new combined charity with Northam Community Link. Having supported City Reach through fundraising and donations for several years, we were keen to assist by providing legal advice that they could not access otherwise. Both charities have served the Northam community – ranked among the top 400 most deprived areas in the UK – for more than 25 years. Notwithstanding the impact of their work, both charities had struggled with resources and funding, relying heavily on volunteers and donors, and were at risk of closure. We provided pro bono advice to support the combination, and since combining, the charities have already secured National Lottery funding that will support the youth project.
We also continue to support the Ethical Property Foundation, the only dedicated property advice charity serving the voluntary sector, ensuring charities and community groups across the UK can access the expert property guidance they need.
Caroline Churchill, David Wathen, Kate Eyres and Nazmin Akthar were named in the Pro Bono Recognition List of England & Wales. The list recognises those who gave more than 25 hours of pro bono in the calendar year 2025. Other colleagues also achieving over 25 hours were Rosie Gollan, based in our Edinburgh office, and Eby Abraha and Adeeba Sheeraz, both apprentices at the firm.
As signatories to the Law Society Pro Bono Charter, we endorse the Joint Pro Bono Protocol for Legal Work.
We have created and launched the firm’s first pro bono committee to drive increased collaboration across teams and offices.
We continue to support the student-led law clinics run by both the University of Law Small Business Clinic and the Free Legal Advice Centre at the University of Edinburgh.
In FY 2025/26, we partnered with the Schools Consent Project (SCP), a UK charity empowering young people through lawyer-led consent literacy workshops focusing on the topic of consent. The SCP aims to normalise conversations about consent, fostering safe and healthy interactions to reduce the risk of sexual harm among young people. As part of this, colleagues will be volunteering time to deliver workshops to local schools, exploring topics such as the legal definition of consent, what constitutes key sexual offences (including the impact of AI), and how to check for and communicate consent. You can read more about SCP here.
Our priority UN Sustainable Development Goal
Goal alignment
16.2 Protect children
end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children
16.3 Access to Justice
promote the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensure equal access to justice for all
16.7 Inclusive participation
ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
