Governance achievements - Responsible Business Report

GOVERNANCE

We strive for best practice and take our ethical responsibilities seriously.

By applying the highest standards of professionalism, business ethics and risk management, we build sustainable practices within WBD and long-term relationships with our clients and stakeholders.

This year we have strengthened our governance structure with the appointment of our first non-executive WBD UK board member, Charlotte Beckett, who stepped into her role on 1 April 2025. Charlotte will bring an independent perspective, expertise and strategic guidance to the Board. We also refreshed the membership of our Responsible Business Steering Group and prepared new terms of reference. Our newly appointed Partner Lead for Responsible Business chairs the Steering Group and works with our UK Chair to provide guidance to the UK Board around our Ethical Framework and Responsible Business Strategy.

Key statistics

Working professionally and responsibly

Developing and supporting our people

Awards and recognition

Members contributing to governance

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Stories

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EcoVadis Gold – ranking us in the top 3% of companies reporting globally

of our people completed information security training

of our people completed ethics refresher training

ISO 9001

certified

ISO 27001

certified

ISO 14001

certified

Working professionally and responsibly

Our Risk & Best Practice team, with the support of colleagues across the firm, have worked hard to achieve ISO 9001 recertification this year. This, in turn, has provided independent assurance to clients, colleagues and the wider community that our quality management system, policies and procedures continue to be robust and compliant with the ISO 9001 standard.

We successfully achieved ISO 27001 re-certification. This standard ensures that our information security management system and associated controls are independently tested and verified. It demonstrates our commitment to ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability of client data which is an essential part of client relations.

Our Internal Audit Team completed a Regulatory Compliance Audit Programme providing assurance that we are complying with SRA requirements, policies, procedures and quality expectations, and proactively identifying opportunities to improve. During the programme, all fee earners in the firm had a sample of their matters audited.

Our Risk & Best Practice Team led Business Continuity Training to ensure that our Incident Management Teams have the knowledge and confidence needed to deal with incidents and are familiar with the detail of our Business Continuity plans. The Team also carried out Business Continuity Testing to ensure the firm's plans are fit for purpose and to proactively identify opportunities for improvement.

Across the year, our IT Team has worked closely with our Risk Team to ensure we respond to data incidents quickly and safeguard the data of clients and stakeholders in the event an incident occurs. This work has addressed potential threats to confidentiality.

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We carried out due diligence on our suppliers to ensure we only work with those who are reputable and who share the same values and practices as us, in line with our responsible business ambition, and that the data we share is secure, key to meeting GDPR requirements.

We also developed and issued a new Supplier Onboarding Questionnaire, designed to deepen our understanding of the practices and processes employed by our suppliers around ESG matters. It also serves to ensure that suppliers provide evidence of their adherence to our Supplier Code of Conduct. This project, developed by our Procurement Team with the support of our Business Services Teams and Networks, is part of our ongoing strategy to ensure collaboration with suppliers who are aligned with our responsible business objective.

Developing and supporting our people

To further develop our people's understanding of responsible business, both what it means to the firm and what it means to our clients, over the last year we have added additional opportunities to our training programmes with a particular focus on enhancing this element in our newly qualified lawyer programme, Pioneer, where case study discussions provide real insight into the impact of our responsible business agenda on how we deliver legal services.

We provided ethics refresher training on "Working professionally and doing the right thing" to all colleagues in December 2024, reminding everyone of how our Ethical Framework helps to challenge and hold ourselves to account, together with the importance of working together to continually improve, thinking carefully about how we represent ourselves to others and the value of our culture when supporting colleagues.

In order to increase awareness of the threat that phishing poses, we carried out phishing tests to ensure staff know how to spot a phishing email. As well as supporting staff, this helps to protect client data and meet our client and GDPR requirements.

We continue to support our people through training programmes, including STEP Diploma, CILEx CPQ, SQE and CLE programmes, Accounting – ATT/CTA Tax Pathway – and Prince 2 Foundation and Practitioner courses.

Over the past year, we have also responded to the increased demand for structured opportunities to connect and collaborate through various initiatives, including live online and in-person training. Our L&D offering provides tailored support for team days, co-developing with team leaders and training reps impactful sessions that strengthen team relationships, build internal networks, and develop essential business skills. From our Executive Services Team Leaders to our energy sector partners each of these team-based events helps to align individual and organisational goals so we can be a truly collaborative business.

We now have IT team representation on our Disability & Neurodiversity Network's steering group providing specialist support for key projects, including the release of an accessibility panel and an entire WBD Accessibility toolkit available to all on our internal LearningHub. The IT team is also represented in our Wellbeing Champions who continue to focus on digital wellbeing and improved IT etiquette.

Awards and recognition

Achieved EcoVadis Gold Medal for the third consecutive year.

Ranked (Top 20) for our commitment to both Sustainability and Legal Technology in the 2025 Legal 500 Future Lawyers guide.

Shortlisted in the ‘Innovation in Generative AI Tools’ category at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe for our internal AI chatbot, iWomble.

WBD named in the Top 50 law firm index in The Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe 2024 report.

James Love, IP partner, was named Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year for his impact made on the Yorkshire legal community and extensive volunteer work, at the 2024 Yorkshire Legal Awards. We were also shortlisted for Best ESG Campaign and Intellectual Property.

Jenny Elgie, Chief Financial Officer, was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Inspiring Female Award category at the North East Chamber of Commerce Inspiring Females Awards 2024.

WBD was shortlisted for ESG Firm of the Year at the Legal 500 Scotland Awards 2024.