Modern Slavery

Modern slavery statement for financial year ending 31 March 2022.

Lewis Silkin LLP is a commercial law firm operating across seven sites in the UK, Republic of Ireland and Asia. We provide legal advice to businesses across Brands, Commercial, Corporate, Data & Privacy, Dispute Resolution, Employment, Immigration & Global Mobility, Intellectual Property, Investigations & Regulatory, Partnerships & LLPs, Real Estate, Restructuring & Insolvency, Tax, Rewards & Incentives, and Technology Contracts.

We are a Firm with a culture of having strong values and we take legislation and compliance seriously. We have a Modern Slavery Policy which sets out our obligations under the Modern Slavery Act 2015. We are committed to opposing modern slavery and forced labour in all forms and do not tolerate forced labour either within our business itself or within our supply chain. We expect our supply chain (whether direct suppliers or those that directly or indirectly supply our direct suppliers) to share the same values.

We have supplier relationships with organisations providing office services such as cleaning and catering, consultancy services, technological solutions and products including IT equipment and office fittings and furniture.

We have reviewed our business and our supply chain. Neither we nor, to the best of our knowledge, our supply chain make use of forced labour. Lewis Silkin is an accredited Living Wage Employer and pays all its staff, including contracted workers, a living wage based on the real cost of living.

We have taken the following steps to assess and manage any risk that our supply chain may use forced labour:

We have adopted a Modern Slavery Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct. We require all significant suppliers to implement the principles in the Policy and Code relating to forced labour and to impose the principles on their respective suppliers.

When entering into arrangements with suppliers, they undergo a supplier approval process in which we assess them from a qualitative and economic perspective. As part of that assessment, we are alert for any indicators of forced labour. We have adapted our procurement process to request the following information from suppliers:

• diversity policy and details of associated training;

• statement agreeing that all staff working in London will be paid at minimum the London Living Wage;

• corporate social responsibility policy/strategy/statement; and

• if relevant, a copy of their Modern Slavery Act statement and information on the measures taken by them to ensure modern slavery is not occurring in their business.

We require significant suppliers to:

• undertake to comply with our Modern Slavery Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct;

• warrant that their business and, to the best of their knowledge, their own supply chain do not use forced labour; and

• agree to provide us on request with responses to a self-assessment questionnaire regarding use of forced labour and steps they have taken to ensure it is not used by them or their supply chain. We expect our direct suppliers to impose equivalent obligations on their own suppliers.

Where available, we have reviewed statements published by our suppliers on the use of forced labour to ensure that they in turn are taking what appears to us to be appropriate steps. We have prepared this statement for the purposes of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It will be reviewed annually. References in the statement to forced labour mean any conduct which is an offence under Part I of that Act including slavery, servitude, any type of forced or compulsory labour and trafficking for the purposes of exploitation.

Approved by the Members of the Operations Board on behalf of Partners

Signed by Richard Miskella and Giles Crown, Joint Managing Partners