Modern Slavery Act

This statement is made on behalf of Michelmores LLP (“the Firm”) pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the Act”) and constitutes the Firm’s slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending April 2024.

The Firm is committed to preventing acts of modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring within our business and, so far as reasonably possible, within our supply chains. This statement sets out the steps that the Firm has taken, and intends to take, to mitigate the risk of such acts occurring.

Our Firm

Michelmores LLP is a limited liability partnership providing a range of legal services to individuals and businesses. The Firm is registered in England and Wales (registered number OC326242) and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (authorisation number 463401). We have offices in London, Exeter, Bristol, Cheltenham and Sidmouth, with our head office located in Exeter. The Firm employs approximately 500 lawyers and support staff and works with a range of external suppliers to support the Firm’s business.

Our supply chains

The external suppliers that we work with to support the delivery of our services to our clients are expected to comply with all applicable laws and the Firm does not knowingly work with any supplier involved in modern slavery or human trafficking.  As part of our efforts to monitor and reduce the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking occurring within our supply chain, we are reviewing our supplier onboarding processes and applying increased due diligence measures for new high value contracts and higher risk suppliers.

If a supplier’s approach to compliance with the Act is considered unsatisfactory, we will review our continued relationship with that supplier. We are committed to investigating any allegations of modern slavery or human trafficking, whether in our own Firm or in our outsourced suppliers.

Training

We provide targeted training on an ongoing basis to educate all staff in recognising the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains, and to enable staff to be able to identify potential areas of concern.

Our policies

We have published our Anti-Slavery Policy to all staff. Our Governance & Risk team keeps this under review and works with the rest of the Firm to help ensure compliance with the policy and to give guidance on any concerns or breaches. Our Whistleblowing Policy encourages the Firm’s employees to report any concerns.

Continuous improvement

We review our policies and processes regarding modern slavery and human trafficking on a regular basis.

During the last financial year, we have:

  • had no reported incidents of slavery or trafficking from our staff or suppliers
  • improved our contractual processes using a risk-based approach and ensured that the decision-making process on all new project proposals includes the consideration of our Responsible Business initiatives.

In the current financial year we intend to:-

  • implement a new tool for supplier onboarding with a planned roll out in Autumn 2024. The new system will provide better oversight of our supply chain and allow us to gather more data, so the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking within the supply chain will be further reduced.
  • introduce a Supplier Code of Conduct and ask key suppliers to sign it to make their commitment to fair employment practices clear.
  • obtain the Living Wage Foundation accreditation
  • continue to provide training for colleagues who deal with procurement

This statement was prepared by our Governance & Risk team and approved by the Governance & Risk Committee.

Tim Richards, Managing Partner, Michelmores LLP

October 2024

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