Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2024/25

This statement is made pursuant to Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and sets out the steps Shoosmiths LLP has taken during the financial year ending 31 March 2025 to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.

Introduction

Shoosmiths LLP recognises that all forms of human trafficking and slavery is a gross violation of human rights and as such we are committed to ensuring that slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking do not take place in any part of our business or supply chains. We understand that transparency and accountability are essential in tackling these issues and we aim to ensure we communicate the actions we are taking with our stakeholders.

This statement refers to our financial year 2024/2025 with our year ending 31 March 2025.

Our structure, business & supply chains

Shoosmiths LLP is a law firm and is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (registered number OC374987). The Shoosmiths group includes a number of subsidiaries and separately constituted legal entities which Shoosmiths LLP ultimately controls, and Shoosmiths (Northern Ireland) LLP (registered number NC001384) which is a separately constituted legal entity regulated by the Law Society of Northern Ireland.

Shoosmiths LLP also provides legal services in Scotland and ultimately controls Shoosmiths Europe LLP (registered number OC440739). We have been delivering legal services to businesses since 1845 and provide legal services via our advisory services, corporate, and real estate divisions.]

The Sustainability Steering Committee is responsible for oversight of the firm’s sustainability strategy, including modern slavery prevention, and reports into the Main Board who are ultimately responsible for all elements of the firm’s sustainability programme.

The structure of our partnership can be viewed here.

As a provider of legal services our supply chain is global and complex, consisting of circa 500 active suppliers in relation to the purchasing of goods and services that support the operations of our offices and services to our clients. These include office supplies, marketing materials, digital agents, IT services and hardware, estate services including cleaning, waste management, refurbishments and maintenance, uniforms and catering, internal and external event services, security, couriers, and recruitment agents among others. We purchase professional services and work with other law firms and experts in the direct delivery of services to our clients including barristers and court services. Whilst we have visibility of our tier 1 suppliers, we have limited visibility of our supply chain below direct relationships we hold. The exception for this is our Facilities Management supply chain where we engage through our tier 1 supplier with our tier 2 suppliers, more details on this can be found in the due diligence section of this statement.

Policies & governance

I head up Shoosmiths’ national banking and finance team, working with some of the world’s leading banks, lenders, and corporates to get deals done. I’m known for being pragmatic, responsive, and commercially focused—someone who brings clarity and momentum to even the most complex transactions.

With over two decades of experience across acquisition finance, real estate finance, and corporate lending, I thrive on helping clients navigate the detail without losing sight of the bigger picture. I build long-term relationships by being a calm, trusted voice in the room —always focused on getting the right outcome.

When I’m not deep in deal structuring, you’ll find me nose in ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ by Gabrielle Zevin.

Due diligence processes in relation to slavery and human trafficking in Shoosmiths’ business

A centre-led approach to procurement and supply chain management ensures that the organisation continues to conduct supply chain management in a consistent, fair and transparent way.

We continue to review our procurement processes, ensuring that we are focusing on continuous improvement in the engagement of our suppliers. As part of this review work, we are:

• Continuing to invest in our procurement team, with the firm’s first Sustainable Procurement Advisor joining the Shoosmiths on a full time, permanent basis to ensure Impacts, Risks and Opportunities (IROs) on ESG are managed effectively;
• Implementing a new Human Rights Policy that formalises our position and sets clear expectations across a number of topics;
• Reviewing and updating our procurement policies and processes – including an enhanced responsible business evaluation to assess potential modern slavery risks, with standardised, and clearer roles and responsibilities involved in supplier selection and ongoing supplier management;
• Improving our supplier onboarding process to provide a more robust supplier evaluation to mitigate any risks associated with modern slavery;
• Continuing to embed our supplier code of conduct – ensuring we are engaging with suppliers who are committing to compliance with the Modern Slavery Act 2015;
• Focusing on supplier contract management with standardised governance, templates, reporting and outputs;
• Undertaking further categorisation of our supply chain – defining key suppliers, ensuring that we are assessing potential risks, including modern slavery risks with the right level of focus; and
• Investing in centralised contract and procurement process technology solutions to allow us to more effectively identify, assess and manage our suppliers.

Our Property and Workplace team engaged with 75 tier 2 facility management outsourced suppliers, covering services such as office and window cleaning, cleaning consumables, couriers, landscaping, waste and recycling and all building services contracts. Each supplier received our survey letter and supplier code of conduct for completion and signature. We place particular attention on those involving unskilled labour and the direct supply of physical products. As part of our Slave Free Alliance audit in June 2023, all existing and new suppliers are required to sign a contract addendum to ensure compliance with modern slavery regulations and to confirm their understanding of the modern slavery reporting process and response action plan. No issues were reported by these suppliers.

For consumables goods, 23 suppliers informed us they are sourcing from the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, UK and USA.

Tier 2 outsourced suppliers are vetted, and an annual compliance review is undertaken to include pre-employment screening, training, health, safety, and environmental and modern slavery compliance.

We currently have nine tier 2 suppliers who are accrediting living wage employers

Training & awareness

We believe that awareness is key to prevention. In 2024/25, we delivered training to our Main Board and Sustainability Steering Committee on sustainability governance, in collaboration with a social enterprise. This focus on capability building ensured our senior leaders can govern environmental and social risks effectively.

We continued to ensure new joiners undertook Modern Slavery training as part of their induction. All new starters in business services are assigned this required modern slavery e-learning training. The training covers four modules providing an introduction to modern slavery, what are the signs, action to take and an assessment of understanding.

We raise awareness amongst our staff about slavery and human trafficking which this year has included:

• Information on our intranet which describes Shoosmiths approach and ways in which staff can help;
• the Unseen App is included as a feature on all new company iPhones and iPads. The App helps to make it easier to report concerns to the free confidential helpline 08000 121 700, operated by Unseen 24 hours a day 365 days a year. The helpline can be used by victims, members of the public and businesses to get help, report a suspicion or seek advice. The helpline website also provides resources and directories of services and helpline providers;
• In the run up to Anti-Slavery Day we engaged our colleagues, detailing Shoosmiths’ approach and priorities and ways colleagues can get involved to raise awareness and support the work of organisations tackling the problem, including an awareness quiz to test colleague’s knowledge and understanding of modern slavery and Shoosmiths’ policies; and
• Inclusion in our annual ESG reporting.

Our advisory role

Modern Slavery Act advice and training is provided to clients by our regulatory team. This includes board briefings, compliance checklists, conducting investigations, preparing s.54 transparency statements, amending and drafting template contracts to include anti-slavery clauses, assisting with business deals clients are undertaking – including by considering if other parties involved are affected by the legislation and inserting anti-slavery clauses in agreements as necessary and  advising clients on investigating allegations of modern slavery in their businesses and/ or supply chain and taking appropriate measures to improve standards and work with regulators, where applicable.

Our business immigration team (which forms part of our national employment team) also advises on right to work and sponsorship compliance and provides training on right to work checks and immigration compliance more widely. During the year our national employment team hosted a webinar on ‘avoiding illegal working and managing risk’ which included content about modern slavery risks and the consequences of non-compliance.

We offer our high-level compliance audit ESG 360, a high-level compliance audit tool to help organisations understand their ESG performance, free of charge. The tool includes a section on modern slavery.

Parts of the business and supply chain where there is a risk of slavery and human trafficking taking place and steps taken to assess and manage that risk

Modern Slavery Act advice and training is provided to clients by our regulatory team. This includes board briefings, compliance checklists, conducting investigations, preparing s.54 transparency statements, amending and drafting template contracts to include anti-slavery clauses, assisting with business deals clients are undertaking – including by considering if other parties involved are affected by the legislation and inserting anti-slavery clauses in agreements as necessary and  advising clients on investigating allegations of modern slavery in their businesses and/ or supply chain and taking appropriate measures to improve standards and work with regulators, where applicable.

Our business immigration team (which forms part of our national employment team) also advises on right to work and sponsorship compliance and provides training on right to work checks and immigration compliance more widely. During the year our national employment team hosted a webinar on ‘avoiding illegal working and managing risk’ which included content about modern slavery risks and the consequences of non-compliance.

We offer our high-level compliance audit ESG 360, a high-level compliance audit tool to help organisations understand their ESG performance, free of charge. The tool includes a section on modern slavery.

Effectiveness in ensuring that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in its business and supply chains and key performance indicator measures

Shoosmiths has not been informed of any incidents of slavery or trafficking during the year but will investigate any allegations should they arise and take appropriate action accordingly.

Divisions and directorates have not identified any internal business procedures that could make demands of suppliers or contractors that might lead them to violate human rights and we will continue to keep this under review.

Key performance indicators

• Instances of modern slavery:

  • 2022/2023: 0 identified within Shoosmiths business operation or supply chain
  • 2023/2024: 0 identified within Shoosmiths business operation or supply chain
  • 2024/2025: 0 identified within Shoosmiths business operation or supply chain

• Completion of e-learning training by required staff:

  • 2022/2023: 65 staff
  • 2023/2024: 55 staff
  • 2024/2025: 61 staff

• Percentage of required staff who have completed e-learning training:

  • 2022/2023: 87%
  • 2023/2024: 82%
  • 2024/2025: 90%

• Number of suppliers signed up to Shoosmiths supplier code of conduct:

  • 2022/2023: 25 suppliers
  • 2023/2024: 102 suppliers
  • 2024/2025: 98 suppliers

• Suppliers requested to complete a survey:

  • 2022/2023: 146 suppliers
  • 2023/2024: 128 suppliers
  • 2024/2025: 114 suppliers

• Suppliers who completed a survey:

  • 2022/2023: 105 suppliers
  • 2023/2024: 108 suppliers
  • 2024/2025: 99 suppliers

Priorities for 2025/2026

1. Develop sustainable procurement strategy and procedures to ensure appropriate engagement with our supply chain in identifying and addressing the potential risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain.
2. Continue to explore opportunities for collaboration with suppliers, peers and third sector organisations involved in mitigating and preventing slavery and trafficking within the UK.
3. Continue to raise awareness amongst stakeholders.

Further details about our approach to responsible business practices including our policy statements, our annual Impact and ESG reports, our blog SHOUTback and our United Nations Global Compact Communication on Progress disclosure.

This approved statement is signed on behalf of the members by the Partnership Council on 30 September 2025 and is signed by:

David Jackson
Chief Executive
Shoosmiths LLP

You can download our 2025 statement here.