Social impact

Australia

As part of International Women’s Day, the Women@Kennedys committee launched a campaign in support of Share the Dignity's International Women's Day Campaign by making a direct donation and running an internal fundraising campaign.  Share the Dignity works to make a real, on-the-ground difference in the lives of women and girls experiencing homelessness or fleeing domestic violence. The organisation distributes sanitary items to those in need and work to end period poverty in Australia. 

Our employment team provides pro bono legal advice to individual clients at Kingsford Legal Centre, a community legal service run by the University of NSW Sydney Law & Justice Faculty. Kennedys is also a law firm partner of the Fair Work Commission Pro Bono Workplace Advice Service, advising and representing individuals and small businesses in various Fair Work matters. 

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, community champions are continuing to support their charity partner the Hong Chi Association (Oi Tung Hostel), by raising funds, donating essential items and joining forces with the residents to mark special occasions, like the Mid-Autumn Festival.  Hong Chi is a charity dedicated to serving over 7,000 people of all ages with developmental need by providing pre-school facilities, supported employment, adult education, family and community support, recreational and social programmes, as well as professional therapy.

As part of Mental Health Awareness activities, the team visited Sai Kung Stray Friends shelter, which houses rescue dogs from the surrounding areas.  Activities included walking the dogs and cleaning the facilities.

India

Our Kennedys IQ Innovation Team have developed the Future Innovators Programme which enables students at a local Government tribal school in Kerala to join the programme as part of their STEM learning curriculum.   In 2023, we sponsored a new ‘smart classroom’ with a special opening ceremony arranged for key stakeholders involved in the project.  This new facility will enable pupils to enhance their learning and take advantage of technology they do not have at home, together with opportunities to improve their language skills at a reading club.

Tony Joseph, CEO at Kennedys IQ commented “For many, it was their first time visiting the city, and their first time talking to an audience in English, but they embraced the opportunity and spoke so passionately about what innovation means to them that they inspired us all.”​​​​​​​

Dubai

SmartLife is a non-profit organisation that assists blue-collar workers in the UAE, which the have supported for several years.

Colleagues regularly donate basic necessities like food and toiletries in support of SmartLife's mission to support workers located in labour camps through their distribution schemes.

Spain

Our team in Madrid has a long-running partnership with Comillas Pontifical University (ICADE) through its Legal Clinic programme. ​​​​​​​ICADE Legal Clinic is a pro bono programme where students from the university volunteer on different projects with NGOs. Our lawyers meet with students to review the current status of their cases and have weekly follow-up calls.

Community champions sponsored a visit to Al Paso a horse therapy experience for twenty children with specific needs.  The team worked alongside children and helped them take part in different workshops.  Horse-riding activities were a big part of the day, and children were given an opportunity to ride a horse and play different psychomotricity, memory, attention and spatial orientation games.  They also had the opportunity to learn about horse care:, as well as learning about how to fit the saddle, bridle and foot protectors together with attended a feeding workshop to learn about what horses eat and what their health needs are. 

Miguel-Angel Aviles, Associate commented, "Many people from the office expressed the gratitude of being able to participate in an event like this, as we felt quite connected both with kids, nature, and helped understanding the problems that face these kids and also the importance of the work carried out by associations as AL PASO."

Mexico

Community champions in Mexico have chosen Reinserta as their charity partner whose mission is to break cycles of crime and curb reoffending in Mexico through the power of social reintegration.  The organisation works with children of incarcerated parents, especially those born and raised in prison, and adolescent and juvenile offenders, as well as survivors of violent crimes.  A plan of support and engagement activities, including meeting the children supported by the programme and other activities that will promote their mission, has been established.

The Mexico team opened their doors to law students from three universities, providing them with an insight into the insurance sector.

"A Day at Kennedys" was designed to encourage students to learn more about we do at Kennedys, making insurance more accessible and also to increase student interest. Although they were law students, they had little experience or knowledge of the insurance sector.  A student commented: "I am very grateful for this opportunity. I had no idea that insurance was so broad and that you could practice law in this way"

Our colleagues in New York, support outreach activities that provide under-represented students with exposure to the world of work. Two students in the tenth and twelfth grades participated in a five-week internship.  One student commented: “As a high school student, I wasn’t sure what I would be doing but there was lots for me to learn.  Meeting all the attorneys was a good way to feel what type of people work inside a law firm.  One task was to observe depositions for different cases and take notes when needed.” 

In Basking Ridge, Community champions have a long-standing partnership with a local school that supports vulnerable children who are neurodiverse.  Following a successful Christmas gift appeal, the support was extended through activities such as distributing warm winter clothing and other essentials.  After the items were delivered, the teachers and children set up a 'store'. Allowing children to feel as if they were shopping in at the mall'. This was an enjoyable interactive experience.

Community champions in Philadelphia held a food drive in readiness for the Thanksgiving holiday in support of Philabundance, Philadelphia's largest nonprofit food bank, distributing food to 350 agencies in and around the city each year through partnerships including churches, children's programmes, homeless shelters, and neighbourhood groups. 

Northern Ireland

Community champions in Belfast are engaging in a number of fundraising activities in support of their charity partner, MACS NI a local organisation that provides a range of support services for children and young people aged 16-25 who are at risk of homelessness, addiction and social isolation.  The team kicked-off the partnership by taking on the ‘Brandy Pad Three Peaks Hikes, which is a 13km trek to raise funds for this amazing charity. 

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Scotland

13 lawyers from law firms in Scotland challenged themselves to run the distance between Edinburgh to Kyiv (approximately 2,704km) to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine amid the ongoing atrocities and raise money for the UK Disasters Emergency Committee. Each runner committed to running 208km with an average run of 6.7km a day.

UK

We have appointed The Children’s Society (TCS) as our UK-wide charity partner.  Our activities can be adapted to reach all of the communities where we have offices.  Our community champions have been taking part in fundraising challenges and team volunteer days in a number of office locations, with pro bono activities being scoped.  TCS offer multiple services to vulnerable young people, including making sure that children have enough to eat, a safe place to stay and access to counselling for victims of abuse, exploitation and neglect. 

Our school's outreach programme continues with student mentoring, insight days and work experience programmes established in our London, Scotland, Taunton, Manchester and Birmingham offices. We have established long-term partnerships with education partners including, Envision and Future Frontiers with the aim of helping young people reach their full potential through skills-based volunteering.

Following the theme of supporting students, we have established an ongoing partnership with Every Child Online (ECO).  Since ECO was established in 2020 more than 12,000 devices have been recycled to date, including 570 PCs and 1,048 from Kennedys.  We have also donated 23 large screen TVs and 650 telephone handsets which have been distributed to schools and community groups in Essex.

We are a founding Affiliate Board member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF), a unique industry-led organisation that improves the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people by bringing the insurance industry together through its annual grant giving programme.  Our membership enables us to broaden our volunteer programme and increase the IICF's impact through industry and client engagement activities.

We are currently developing our Pro bono Pathways programme, and have been supporting pro bono clients with their mission; for example Amplify Goods, a start-up that is committed to reducing single-use plastic by working with supply chains to provide eco-friendly containers to companies that care about the planet. 

We ran our first CyberWise Workshop in partnership with ANTZ which offered SMEs in Manchester an opportunity to learn about the risks of not having a robust cyber security system in place.  Participants were invited to attend a 30 minute follow-up session.  We are planning on expanding the reach of this legal training to other office locations. 

Working in partnership with The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP), our pro bono team has developed two clauses which, for the first time, will allow insurers to offer their commercial clients liability cover for climate-related injury or property damage claims.

TCLP is a global network of over 3,000 legal and industry professionals working together to create free contractual clauses that make tackling the climate crisis part of the drafting process in all contractual documents.  See press release here.

We offer innovative learning engagement opportunities for our people to assist with raising their awareness of global risks and opportunities. This year, over 450 colleagues attended a number of webinars and interactive sessions including our Curious About Climate Change webinar series delivered by expert partner Bright-Tide, covering topics such as climate change, sustainable finance, biodiversity and protecting our oceans; we ran the What’s the Buzz about Biodiversity hackathon which enabled lawyers to brainstorm and find legal solutions to protect our natural world. Colleagues also took part in our TCLP webinar, which was designed as a panel discussion on the creation of climate-friendly clauses and the practical application in a commercial setting.