CSR: Forward Community Programme

We recognise that we have a responsibility to ensure our business has a positive impact on the people, communities and environment around us.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is important to us. The success of our business relies upon our ability to attract, train and retain the best people. We support diversity throughout our business and make every effort to create and maintain an inclusive culture. We recognise our responsibilities in the community and encourage our people to engage in activities that better society and build trust in our local communities. As a forward-looking firm, we understand the importance of minimising our environmental impact. Therefore we are committed to facilitating environmentally friendly working practices by our people and in our offices.

The concept of CSR is in our opinion under developed in our profession. We don’t want to just do what is required like many other firms - but go above and beyond. We have built our business over 150 years by looking ahead and adapting and changing at the right times. Thinking about the future of our planet and society, being a good corporate citizen and doing our bit to make a difference is a high priority for the firm. Our recent rebrand was to capture what we believe is at the very heart of our firm – being forward-looking. To be a truly forward-looking firm, community must be at the very heart of our culture. We are at the beginning of an exciting journey to develop what we believe will be a vital community programme to deliver our CSR initiatives. Our Forward Community Programme covers the following key areas:

Inclusion & Diversity

Making sure that equality and diversity are celebrated. We want a firm that has diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints and where all our people, regardless of their background, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation feel they belong. Inclusion and diversity is high on the agenda for Mewburn Ellis. It’s part of our business plan and is being driven by our management board. For us, inclusion and diversity is more than just a tick-box exercise – it is an issue that’s long been on our agenda and ingrained in our business plan and imbedded in our culture. 

We've come a long way in this important area. We have undertaken an audit of our existing culture, processes and practices to help us develop a strategic I&D framework that explores four key areas. Inclusivity for us is about the people we hire, the careers we nurture, the culture we build and the relationships we have with our clients.  We have already started to make changes in these areas. We have created a new board level role of Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer as well as launched an Inclusion & Diversity Collaboration Group. We have rolled out training to all our leaders, signed up to the IP Inclusive Senior Leader's Pledge and are also now proud to be using Rare Recruitment's Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) which allows us to consider an applicant's achievements in the context in which they were gained. 

Community

For us this means nurturing our people, helping everyone develop and contributing to the wider communities in which we operate as well as supporting worthy causes with time and money. As a firm we have made a commitment to donate 1% of our profits to charity each year as well as one community day for every member of the firm to good causes. In addition we operate a Give As You Earn (GAYE) scheme so our people can donate to charities of their choice in a simple and tax effective way.

We support charities at a firmwide level and our people also choose a local charity every two years for each of our fives ofifces. Our combined community effort amounts to more than £600,000 of investment over the last three years and over 350 days of time available each year to donate to good causes. Read more in our Sustainable Communities Special report below.

Sustainability

Sustainability is a complex area and a ongoing focus for our firm. Our priority is to make sure that the way we operate has as little environmental impact as possible. We are looking at how we deal with waste, energy and reducing our carbon footprint, with the objective to eliminate our use if we can, reduce where possible or substitute if necessary. This is a broad approach and covers everything from how we manage our offices to the travel we undertake the decisions we make about the suppliers and products we use.

We're at the start of the journey for this project and working hard to implement key changes to our business. To help us we have developed a five step climate action plan that we're using as a framework to help us improve in this key area. Some steps are long-term and will take time, others are quicker wins that we're implementing now. All are tangible, a priority for us and part of our business plan with board level support.

Find out more about why sustainability and community is so important to our firm

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Gender Pay Gap: Updated for 2020/21

Committed to Gender Equality

We have taken the decision to be open about our Gender Pay Gap figures, even though as a partnership with fewer than 250 employees we are not yet required to report on these statistics. We have been tracking them for the last four years and have produced them for both our staff and our partnership.

In summary for 2020/21 our median pay gap was 26.5%. This is an increase from the 2019/20 figure of 22.3%. In terms of our bonus gap, there is still no median gap as men and women are paid the same.

The gender split of our teams remains biased towards women at 65% and men at 35%, This is a change from 59% women and 41% men in 2019/20.  We still have significantly more women at 60% in upper middle positions than men at 40%. At the upper level, the split has changed from 45% men and 55% women in 2019 to 49% men and 51% women in 2020/21.

We currently have 48 partners in total. 73% of our partners are male and 27% are female. In our lower and middle quartiles our partnership remains 58% men and 42% women. We are making strong improvements in these partnership quartiles and are committed to having a diverse partnership. 

We are not evenly split in our upper quartiles. We want to change this, but evolving the make-up of our partnership will take time. Upper quartile partners have been at the firm for 25-30 years and at the time they joined the firm, there were far fewer women studying STEM qualifications. It is important to note that our partnership continually expands, rather than specific spaces being allocated or a 'one in one out' system being in place; this also affects the rate gender balance can change.

Read our Community & CSR Related Blogs

Mewburn Ellis recognised in The Legal 500 UK Green Guide 2025

Mewburn Ellis recognised in The Legal 500 UK Green Guide 2025

by Joanna Smith

We are delighted to announce that we have once again been recognised in The Legal 500 UK Green Guide 2025 edition. Congratulations to Eleanor Maciver who has been listed as a Green Ambassador.

Mewburn Ellis is the world’s first IP firm to be awarded an EcoVadis Platinum Medal

Mewburn Ellis is the world’s first IP firm to be awarded an EcoVadis Platinum Medal

by Maria Hall

European intellectual property firm Mewburn Ellis has achieved a significant milestone by earning the first Platinum medal for an IP firm from EcoVadis, the global sustainability ratings provider.

Mewburn Ellis – sustainability and the road to net zero

Mewburn Ellis – sustainability and the road to net zero

by Eleanor Maciver

Sustainability Champion Eleanor Maciver explains her masterplan for Mewburn Ellis. Forward: features are independent pieces written for Mewburn Ellis discussing and celebrating the best of innovation ...

Mewburn Ellis has donated over £1,000,000 to charity

Mewburn Ellis has donated over £1,000,000 to charity

by Maria Hall

Today marks International Day of Charity (September 5th), since 2020, we have donated over £1,000,000 to charity from our Forward Community Program Charity Fund, supporting local, national, and ...

Mewburn Ellis recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services!

Mewburn Ellis recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services!

by Maria Hall

We are proud to announce that following on from our recent announcement of being officially named as a Great Place To Work™ 2024, across all offices in the UK and Germany, we have also been ...

National Paralegal Awards Finalists 2024

National Paralegal Awards Finalists 2024

by Lesley Gardner

We are extremely proud to announce our finalists in the National Paralegal Awards 2024 which promote the work and achievements of Paralegals in the UK.

Inclusion & Diversity is a Journey for Mewburn Ellis

We began our journey in early 2021 when we started to work with external specialist consultants Brook Graham. We undertook an audit of our existing culture, processes and practices to help us establish a dedicated I&D strategy for the firm. We also ran an awareness building programme, staff survey and focus groups to explore key themes. We have shared the results of this work with all our people. Our aim has been to make inclusivity a whole firm project.

From our research and with Brook Graham's expertise, we started to develop a strategic I&D framework that explores four key areas. Inclusivity for us is about the people we hire, the careers we nurture, the culture we build and the relationships we have with our clients. We have already started to make changes in these areas. We have created a new board level role of Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer as well as launched an Inclusion & Diversity Collaboration Group. We are also now proud to be using Rare Recruitment's Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) which allows us to consider an applicant's achievements in the context in which they were gained. 

Strategic I&D framework

I&D Strategy Table Jan 2022

 

A showcase of what it's like to work at Mewburn Ellis, with a focus on inclusion, diversity and culture.

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three page spread - sustainable communities report

Sustainable Communities

Special Report

The special report talks about our approach to our Forward Community Programme and specifically includes the following:

  • Given over £1,000,000 to good causes and grown our Mewburn Forest to over 58,000 trees.
  • Enhanced our inclusive and supportive culture by becoming the first IP firm to receive the Menopause Friendly Accreditation and established Men's Health Campions across the firm.
  • Achieving a CDP score of C, retained our Silver rating with EcoVadis, joined the UN Global Compact and earning the Great Place To Work™ certification.

 

Download the Report

A Commitment to Community

We want to give both time and money to community causes that are close to the heart of our business, relevant to our local offices and enable us to give back to the communities in which we operate. This year we will donate over 300 days of time to charity through our community day and 1% of our profits which equates to more than £180,000 per year.

This is in addition to our more ad hoc fund raising activity, where we have supported charities and events such as Genes for Jeans, Children in Need and Save the Children. We are also an active supporter of UK Youth, a leading national charity, committed to providing access to appropriate, high quality services in every community so that young people are empowered to build bright futures, regardless of their background or circumstances.

We donate all of our old desktop PCs to the charity PCrefurb an independent not-for-profit community group with the aim of engaging the IT skills of vulnerable and hard-to-reach individuals to “rescue” unwanted IT equipment. They refurbish donated IT equipment and redistribute it to those most in need, helping people connect with training and education and to support their well-being.  So far we have donated 58 desktops and 16 monitors with more to come.  Our commitment to supporting the work that PCrefurb do means that many more vulnerable people will be helped to get online.

We also donate to support emergency appeals and help where we can when should a crisis occur. From Coronavirus through to Ukraine, Afghanistan and Turkey, we aim to be a good global corporate citizen and go our part where possible. 


Our choices for 2020/22 are:

  • Bristol: Help Bristol Homeless a charity that supports homeless and raising awareness of homelessness in Bristol by providing a gated community of 15 self contained flats.

  • Cambridge: East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, which cares for children and young people with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, and supports their families.

  • London: Shelter from the Storm, an emergency night shelter located not far from our London office, providing bed, dinner and breakfast for 38 homeless people every night of the year.

  • Manchester: The Christie Charitable Fund , a Manchester based hospital, which provides cancer care, research and education.

  • Munich: KARLA 51 Women’s Shelter, a Munich based, women only shelter supporting women and children and providing beds for 55 women each night.

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Forward Magazines Overlapping 8

Mewburn Ellis

FORWARD MAGAZINE

Mewburn Ellis Forward is a biannual publication that celebrates the best of innovation and exploration. Through its pages we hope to inform and entertain, but also to encourage discussion about the most compelling developments taking place in the scientific and entrepreneurial world. Along the way, we’ll engage with the IP challenges that international organisations face every day.