Corporate Citizenship at Hannes Snellman in 2021

Hannes Snellman has a heritage of serving the community - we started our corporate citizenship journey over a hundred years ago. For us, corporate citizenship and sustainability means the practical realisation of our firm’s and any attorney’s and law firm professional’s fundamental professional values.

To this day, the principle of giving back to society thrives in the firm, as we at Hannes Snellman want to make a positive impact in whatever we do. We are involved in a wide range of initiatives related to corporate citizenship by contributing with our expertise and resources to the promotion of values and causes that benefit our community. Our firm also contributes to the society by participating in the development of legislation, by giving external lectures to inspire young people, and by developing our own working environment.

At the end of 2020, Hannes Snellman joined the UN Global Compact Network, which is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative that supports companies in doing business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption and by taking strategic actions to advance broader societal goals with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation. These endeavours increasingly need to be carried out together with our clients, and we need to consider how ESG aspects can be taken into account more efficiently in handling matters and how we can align our aspirations with those of our clients and cooperation partners. Our 2021 Sustainability Report is available here.

Our people are strongly involved in all our corporate citizenship, pro bono, and sustainability initiatives. One of our traditions is to make annual donations to charities that share our values.

In 2021, we continued to support our long-term cooperation partner UNICEF in their work to deliver vaccines to every country, especially in 100 low-and-middle-income countries, and to work towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic globally.

In addition,  we supported Tyttöjen Talo (Girls’ House), which offers easy access services for girls and women between the ages of 10-28, taking gender diversity into account. Girls’ House services include open and community activities, themed groups, hobby opportunities, individual support for different life situations, activities in different schools in the Helsinki area, sexual counseling and education, and individual and peer group support for those who have experienced sexual violence. This year, we also supported WWF, whose mission is to build a future in which people live in harmony with nature and strive to safeguard the natural world, helping people live more sustainably and take action against climate change.

All three causes reflect the UN Sustainable Development Goals we have identified as top priorities at Hannes Snellman: Reduce Inequalities; Climate Action; and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

We also continued our strong tradition of handling pro bono assignments throughout the year. In addition, we participated in the Ketjureaktio cycling charity event, had a charity sports challenge with our colleagues at Roschier, supported the Pink Ribbon campaign through our events, cooperated with Venner to support disadvantaged families with food boxes, and arranged the Finnish “Joulupuu” charity campaign in cooperation with our staff.

We have a firm belief that by serving the public good, we translate our values into action.