Improved Ratings By EcoVadis and Lamp House Validate Law Firm’s Responsible Business and Sustainability Commitments

Irwin Mitchell’s commitment to responsible business and sustainability has been further demonstrated after the firm was ranked highly in two recent reports.

The firm entered the top 10% in the Lamp House report and secured a Gold Medal from EcoVadis, a global leader in business sustainability assessments.

Established in Paris in 2007, EcoVadis has grown into a globally trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, with a network of more than 130,000 organisations rated around the world.

Irwin Mitchell has improved its score year on year, replacing the silver medal it was awarded in 2023, for ranking within the top 25% of participants, with a gold medal after being rated within the top five per cent of the thousands of companies assessed by EcoVadis globally in the last 12 months. 

The EcoVadis assessment evaluates 21 sustainability criteria across four core themes: Environment, Labour and Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.

In addition to the overall rating, the resulting scorecard includes a comprehensive list of strengths and areas for further improvement, helping firms to benchmark performance against others in the EcoVadis network and tracking progress towards key goals.

The firm has also seen improvements in its ranking in the annual Lamp House report, which analyses the ESG performance of 215 law firms globally based on their responsible business activities, going from top 25% in FY23, to top 10% in FY24.

The improved rankings have coincided with the publication of Irwin Mitchell’s latest Responsible Business report which details the firms new Code of Ethics, updated commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and progress towards it’s near and long-term Science Based targets initiative verified net-zero targets.

Expert Opinion

“Measuring and improving our performance across a range of environmental, social and governance goals is a key part of our determination to be a leading responsible business, and we’re delighted that EcoVadis and Lamp House have recognised the progress we’re making.

“To have been rated within the top 5% of organisations assessed by EcoVadis to secure our Gold award, as well as being ranked within the top 10% of law firms analysed by Lamp House reflects all of the hard work that has gone into increasing our maturity as a responsible business. We’re proud of our achievements and committed to making further progress.” Kate Fergusson, Director of Responsible Business and Sustainability

EcoVadis’s business sustainability ratings are based on international sustainability standards such as the Ten Principles of the UNGC the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and the ISO 26000 standard. 

The ratings provide an evidence-based analysis on performance and an actionable roadmap for continuous improvement.

Lamp House is an insights specialist for the legal industry. Their annual report, now in its second year, evaluates 215 leading law firms based in the UK, US and Canda on over 200 sector specific ESG metrics.