Our CSR and Green Credentials

Ogier Leman’s Le Green team look after many of our CSR and green initiatives across the firm. The committee, made up of staff from all levels of seniority, have been instrumental in bringing about real and lasting change implemented firm-wide. Green practice is a core value of Leman and it is fundamental to how the business is run. Maintaining a green practice is an ongoing project and one to which Ogier Leman is firmly committed to. Ogier Leman strives to always be better and greener where it can be.

Since 2011 Ogier Leman has raised more than €250,000 for charities each of which does very important work in our local and wider communities. Our Christmas Caroling and Leman Challenge make up some of our annual fundraising events and everyone in the firm participates enthusiastically each year.

Over the years we’ve assisted Pieta House, Irish Autism Action, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, Paralympics Ireland, Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland, The Samaritans, The Simon Community, Crumlin Children’s Hospital, Focus Ireland and the Marie Keating Foundation.

For 2021’s Leman Challenge we focused on the area of mental health with our ‘Around the World in 80 days’ theme, travelling 40,000km virtually around the world to raise funds for Pieta, Dublin Samaritans, Aware and SpunOut.ie

Being involved in our local business and social community is truly important for us. We have always supported local business and are delighted to see their continuing success.

In 2021, we are engaging in voluntary concepts such as Simon Soup Run, Prison Education, Irish Rule of Law, Calcutta Run, Darkness into Light, KIVA (the world’s first online lending platform), CoderDojo(volunteer-led, community-based computer programming clubs for young people), and ProBono work.

Recycling, re-use and waste minimisation

We were Ireland’s first paperless office and our continuing drive for efficiency and the avoidance of waste in our business management has been recognised with ISO9001 certification.

Our decision to go paperless means that we have significantly reduced our CO2 emissions and carbon footprint. The average lawyer can use anywhere between 20,000 to 100,000 pages of paper a year. By our calculations, by going paperless we save over 1 million pages of paper a year. That’s 50 Trees!

Composting

We started composting by segregating food waste from the general and recycling wastes. This initiative is aimed at reducing the amount of food waste accumulated in the office, which ultimately ends up in landfills and produces methane emissions. Not only have we continued this initiative since its introduction, but we have expanded this measure to all businesses throughout the Ogier Group.

Battery Bins

Electrical waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world, with a record 53.6 million metric tonnes of electronic waste generated worldwide in 2019. In recognition of this issue, we introduced battery bins throughout the office to collect any depleted batteries. These batteries are then delivered to a local authority recycling centre to ensure they are disposed of in a safe manner.

Use of “green” suppliers or materials

In the last number of years, we have made significant changes to our suppliers and to the materials we use in the office. We source all supplies and materials from local and more environmentally conscious suppliers. By switching to local and ‘green’ suppliers, we have also reduced our carbon footprint significantly by no longer relying on international shipments.

We deliver regular free seminars to SME leaders in our community. In 2015 we showed tech entrepreneurs how to maximize the value of their business; we explained to developers and other corporate borrowers how to deal with loan negotiations with loan acquirers, and we presented a vision of the future of law and legal technology to more than 70 senior inhouse counsel from local and international enterprises.

We provide a very different practical working experience. While we adhere to traditional values and ethics, our work practices are highly innovative. We work with the most advanced legal technology which is available to everyone not just the senior members of staff.

Our use of advanced technology allows us to provide truly flexible and unique working solutions. We were the first law firm in Ireland to enable people work full-time from home at hours that suit them.