For us, like many of our clients, ESG is not a new concept, but an evolution of commitments and initiatives that align to our purpose and core values, and a journey we are continuing on.

Our ambition is to Grow our community contribution sustainably and to support that our ESG framework is guided by five pillars – Sustainability, Diversity and inclusion, Health and Mental Health, Access to justice and community arts and Governance.

Environment

Committed to Sustainability, we are passionate about reducing our impact and know we have a responsibility to contribute to the sustainability of our environment as part of our purpose. Through our own LEAF Committee, membership of the Australian Legal Sector Alliance, pro bono support of charities and not-for profits in this space, and the establishment of the Michael Roche Scholarship, we are committed to working collaboratively to inspire and facilitate more sustainable practices across the legal sector and beyond.

Social

Committed to Diversity and inclusion, we are continually evolving and learning, through our community engagement and creating conversations beyond the law.  We understand our people are our biggest asset and in this area we focus on the following pillars – Gender Equality, Diverse Genders and Sexualities, Cultural diversity, Disability and Access, and Working families.

Supporting Health and Mental Health, is core to the wellbeing of our people, the legal industry and the community more broadly. Domestic and Family Violence education and support, health and mental health awareness and initiatives and access to appropriate programs and care underpin our commitment.

Providing Access to justice and community arts through key community partnerships, pro bono support for charities, not-for-profits and a range of Community Legal Clinics is one way we share our talent, time and resources to benefit the communities in which we live and work. Our people recognise their advantage and value the opportunity to give back and facilitate positive social change.

Governance

Committed to good governance, transparency and accountability, at McCullough Robertson, we value and are committed to forging strong, long term and collaborative relationships with all people and organisations we do business with, including our third party suppliers – our business partners. We are committed to responding to the needs of our clients and conducting business in a safe, sustainable and equitable manner, consistent with all Australian and international laws, regulations, codes and standards relevant to our work. This is important to us.

To achieve this, we have developed a set of guiding principles outlined in our Statement of Business Ethics. We are committed to working with our business partners to enhance and develop their understanding of, and support their compliance with, these principles.
Read our Statement of Business Ethics.

We have an extensive risk management framework, and actively manage conflicts of interest, ethical issues and client complaints. We have policies against Modern Slavery, bribery, corruption and fraud, and protecting Whistleblowing and Privacy and information security.

Community Partnerships Program

Our Community Partnerships Program underpins all aspects of esg@mcr, it’s part of who we are and what we do. Through our CPP we support and create opportunities for our people to engage with our community partners to give back and facilitate positive social change.

McR ESG – Supporting our clients

We are committed to helping our clients navigate their ESG journey, take advantage of the opportunities it creates, and evolve their organisations for the future. To that end, in 2022 we established McR ESG, a McCullough Robertson diversified business providing practical commercial support and advice to develop actionable ESG responses that align to clients’ businesses, industries and customers.