Responsible Business

At McCann FitzGerald LLP, our purpose is to enable our clients and our people to achieve their ambitions. Increasingly, those ambitions are being framed through the lens of the sustainability agenda.

Our Responsible Business Strategy guides our commitment to being a responsible business, considering the environment and broader society in our endeavours, and how we embed sustainability across the firm.

Globally, truly transformational change is happening across the economy and society. While climate change and increasing concerns of its impacts on our environment is the most urgent catalyst, transition is also underway across the broader sustainability framework of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG).

Against this backdrop, it is incumbent on all of us to respond accordingly and to play our part in enabling and delivering effective outcomes. In responding, our firm will remain closely aligned to the relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), whilst also welcoming the scrutiny and rigour of external review.

Our Responsible Business strategy focuses on three pillars:

CLIMATE

CULTURE

COMMUNITY

We have made meaningful progress against our strategic objectives but we must always seek to do more. Building on our leadership position, we can help deliver progress that is both impactful and measurable. Our Responsible Business Committee, consisting of our Managing Partner and Senior Leadership, supports the implementation of our Responsible Business Strategy, providing the firm with a sustainable framework for the future.

1. Climate

We are dedicated to operating our business in an environmentally responsible manner and we strive to minimise any negative impact our operations may have on the environment. We have committed to set near and long-term company-wide emission reductions in line with science-based net-zero with the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi).

We have successfully reduced our carbon emissions by 50% in 2022, using 2018 as our baseline. Our efforts include close monitoring and reduction of energy consumption, as well as investment in LED technology for most areas of our Riverside One building. Additionally, we have implemented recycling and waste reduction measures, including the use of food waste sensors in our canteen kitchen. We also use carbon-neutral paper and have an IT recycling contract with our technology provider.

We communicate our emissions with our people and run climate awareness initiatives such as the Funds Industry Climate Challenge. Additionally, we support our community by promoting a greater understanding of environmental and climate issues through educational initiatives through our partnership with Global Action Plan.

2. Culture

Integrity, ambition, connectedness, and respect are some of the hallmarks of our culture.

Our focus on excellence and leadership enables us to deliver outstanding client service in a respectful and collaborative workplace environment that fosters innovative thinking. We provide opportunities for our people to develop their careers, while empowering them to achieve a sense of purpose and belonging

In hiring, McCann FitzGerald LLP is an equal opportunities employer and is fully committed to hiring the best people for the job and who reflect the diversity of our society. We interrogate and fine-tune our recruitment processes to mitigate against structural and systemic biases and barriers facing candidates.

Our diversity strategy is led by three of our partners and supported by sub-committees representing roles across our business. Our five diversity pillars are Gender, LGBTQ+, Race and Ethnicity, Disability and Neurodiversity and Social Mobility. We are signatories of the Women in Finance Charter as part of our wider commitment to gender equality, diversity, and inclusion and our gender action plan. A key component of this plan is the firm’s commitment to have not less than 40% female partners by 2030 We have an Investors in Diversity accreditation from the Irish Centre for Diversity. Please find more information about our DE&I committee here. 

Under our Culture Pillar we partner with external organisations like Open Doors, Trinity Access Programme, DCU Access Programme, Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities and Leading Minds.

We are dedicated to nurturing and developing a culture of wellness in our firm. We do this by focusing on four priority areas social, physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. We cultivate a sense of belonging and create the conditions to enable people to be at their best.

3. Community

At our core, we have a responsibility to prioritise making a positive difference in our communities.

We achieve this by volunteering, supporting community initiatives and leveraging our expertise to improve access to justice and the legal system. We contribute funding, knowledge, skills, and time to support local organisations that share our vision of creating a positive impact with a particular emphasis on advancing education.

The Shona Project
Our philanthropic support provides 1,000 students in five DEIS schools with a workshop themed on empowering and inspiring girls to become tomorrow’s strong, resilient, and confident young women.

The Breakthrough Project Ringsend College
We support a scholarship programme in Ringsend College in Dublin which will benefit 5 students from lower socio-economic backgrounds to help them progress to third-level education.

basis.point
We are a supporting member of basis.point, which funds programmes to improve outcomes for children experiencing disadvantage by providing funding and volunteer support.

Early Learning Initiative (ELI)
ELI supports educational underachievement in marginalised communities and supports children and their families who live in the community where McCann FitzGerald LLP operates. We have supported this project for over 10 years with both financial and volunteering support.

Dublin Docklands Forum
We are members of the Dublin Docklands Forum collaborating on initiatives that engage the local workforce within the area.

Pro Bono
The ability to provide free legal aid to those who are unable to access it or afford it is an integral part of our business.

We have pro bono partnerships with the Free Legal Aid Clinics (FLAC), Community Law & Mediation, Women’s Aid, and Immigrant Council Ireland involving lawyers from all our practice areas.

McCann FitzGerald LLP is a sustaining partner of the Public Interest Law Alliance (PILA), which partners with not-for-profit organisations, community groups and independent law centres. It operates a Pro Bono Referral Scheme that matches the unmet legal needs of these organisations with lawyers and law firms willing to give their services for free.

In November 2020, McCann FitzGerald LLP became a founding signatory to the Pro Bono Pledge Ireland. Signatories to the pledge commit to undertake pro bono work in the public interest and aspire to deliver 20 hours per lawyer per year.  As part of pledge, we are required to report our pro bono hours annually in accordance with PILA’s Pro Bono Reporting Guidelines.

Our partners