Corporate Responsibility


Corporate Social Responsibility

Our Commitment

Since our establishment, we have taken great pride in our commitment to build a Firm that is not only a provider of premier legal services, but also one that strives to leverage talent, expertise, resources, relationships and influence to help the community and make a positive and lasting impact on critical global issues.

We direct our efforts on areas where we think we can make the most impact. Therefore, our  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program has three pillars. While distinct in vision, all three pillars often overlap as we team with clients to address some of today’s most pressing social problems with truly sustainable solutions.

Our CSR Pillars

Pro Bono &Community Service

Our pro bono mission is to apply our legal knowledge and passion to advance fundamental rights and opportunities for the underserved and disadvantaged, by fostering an environment that encourages pro bono and sponsoring activities that provide opportunities for all our personnel.

Our lawyers provide pro bono support on a wide variety of issues within our capabilities, from promoting the rule of law and safeguarding the rights of vulnerable to supporting NGOs’ efforts and representing disadvantaged groups.

We also collaborate with our clients and NGOs dedicated to promoting justice and compassion in our community

Diversity
& Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion are in our DNA. The differences of our people have helped us to work fluently across borders, cultures and practices. Organizations work best when people with different backgrounds and various points of view are brought together.

Our own diversity mirrors our commitment to exploring multiple perspectives to develop the best possible solutions for our clients, and to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion. Our belief is that D&I creates a positive workforce environment, and this approach breeds creativity, encourages greater ranges of views and helps us to better respond to our clients and communities’ needs.

Sustainability

We recognize the importance of environmental sustainability to our people, our clients and to the communities in which we live and with which we work.

We contribute to sustainability not only through the practice of law in our environmental and climate change practices, but also through our efforts to monitor and mitigate the environmental impact and risk of our operations. We seek to reduce, reuse and recycle the energy and natural resources necessary for our business.

Diversity & Inclusion

Our goal is for our community to comprise people of every race, ethnicity, belief or lack of belief, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, and gender identity, as well as people with disabilities.

Diversity & Inclusion

✓ Increases the engagement and loyalty of staff, clients, and suppliers
✓ Helps achieve better relationship management
✓ Encourages, develops, retains and motivates talent
✓ Constitutes a magnet for talent
✓ It’s the smart thing to do!

Our Policy and Areas of Focus

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace culture that not only celebrates equality across many dimensions of difference, such as gender, culture and ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and personal and professional success, but also values differences between people and harnesses the full capabilities of individuals.

Therefore, our D&I Program is focused on four main pillars of diversity, namely, genderethnicity & cultureLGBTI+ and disability, supported by certain key areas of our Firm strategy: trainings, flexible working arrangements, work-life balance, recruitment practices, networking, communication, coaching/mentoring, and progress evaluations.

Our Policy and Areas of Focus

✓ Established in February 2014
✓ Supported/budgeted by local office management
✓ Consists of 15 volunteering members
✓ Convenes on a monthly basis; more often if need be
✓ Main goals:

  • To create welcoming environment for everyone
  • To ensure equal treatment
  • To create awareness of diversity concepts and issues, impact the office/community
  • To support diverse individuals and communities in Istanbul
  • To be a leader in the legal community/private sector for diversity support

Our Policy and Areas of Focus

We developed relationships with NGOs to share D&I ideas and participate in each others’ benchmarking events and workshops. We established diversity networks with specific objectives consisting of our members at the Firm as well as around client relations.

Our Diversity Committee honors important dates on the D&I calendar: emails commemorating significant dates; social media posts; Informative posters around the office; movies based on the relevant diversity matter and significant event/date; a D&I section on the office website; and pro bono work.

Gender Diversity / the EsinWomen Initiative

Our main goal is to provide equal opportunity and development potential to all our employees.

Our work involves a variety of improvements to our regulations that allow our employees to continue advancing in their professional career during pregnancy and childbirth. We also have fringe benefit regulations in place for all of our employees regarding adoption and marriage. We are working together to empower our employees both within and outside of the office; raise the number of women in leadership roles; and promote gender equality.

In this context, we continue our work through the EsinWomen Committee, which was established in August 2017.

LGBT+ Diversity

We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive and inclusive working environment where individuals of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity and expression can succeed professionally and fully contribute to the goals of the Firm. The diversity within our Firm is a key element to our identity and strength, and we strive to build and celebrate a culture that will enable everyone to flourish without exception.

Ethnic & Cultural Diversity

We are creating environments across the globe where each person brings with them a rich cultural background. We want to  celebrate each person’s cultural uniqueness and encourage all voices to be heard.

Ethnicity has different meanings in different communities, including for the different clients, sectors and locations we work with. Therefore, we pursue a multifaceted strategy that is both culturally sensitive and relevant in each jurisdiction we work with.

Disability Diversity

We have done a series of events in the Firm to support and develop Disability Diversity. Despite being the world’s largest minority group, the disabled are given relatively limited attention compared to the other three pillars. Our activities have primarily focused on educating ourselves and raising awareness for disabled individuals. We proposed and assisted our local management organizing the construction of the wheelchair ramp entrance and accesible restrooms in our office building.