Place to Grow Corporate Sponsor Profile

We are excited to share this profile of the wonderful people at Hogan Lovells, who have been supporting Place to Grow through both in-kind donations, staff volunteer support, and financial aid.  Hogan Lovells is a global legal practice that helps corporations, financial institutions, and governmental entities across the spectrum of their critical business and legal issues globally and locally. 

Please tell us about your company, and why you chose to get involved with Place to Grow?

Volunteering and citizenship (corporate social responsibility) is a very important part of the work of all of our employees at Hogan Lovells and we encourage full participation in these types of activities.  In the case of choosing which charities to support, we usually have staff nominate two or three different choices and then everybody votes on which one to support as our main charity for the year.  The democratic process helps to ensure the engagement of the whole office.

We go beyond talking about good Citizenship – we live it every day. Everyone is asked to volunteer at least 25 hours each year as part of normal work duties, and our lawyers devote more than 100,000 hours every year to pro bono matters. We invest our time, talents, and resources in the places where we live and work, and across our global community.

Globally, we run a Community Investment program that covers all volunteering undertaken by our people.  It focuses on non-legal skills and can be undertaken by anyone in our offices. Our staff work closely with local community organisations, charities and schools to develop projects that tackle social issues faced by people in the areas in which our offices are located. Our five priority areas focus on education, employability, mentoring, social welfare, and working with the elderly. Many of our projects also offer our people the opportunity to develop their own skills alongside giving back to our communities. 

What inspires you personally about your work, and about volunteering?

It is inspiring to know that our HL Tokyo office team is constantly striving to become a more all-encompassing, caring group of global citizens. Having an opportunity to volunteer means that one can contribute not only on work matters assigned to the individual but on matters that one has chosen to get involved in that count towards something that matters to Hogan Lovells and society as a whole.  There is a trickle-down effect of this engagement in volunteering and going beyond what one would normally be expected to do when carrying out one's duties at work.  There is a sense of taking responsibility for each other as a team and this inspires one to work at Hogan Lovells and take responsibility also for doing a better job.

Exemplary Citizenship is an integral part of Hogan Lovells’ culture and strategy. Our shared belief in the value of social responsibility is one of the bonds that unifies us as a global firm and we seek to engage all of our offices and people in our Citizenship programs.  Many of us have worked on some impressive and ground-breaking Citizenship activities over the years and are able to provide leadership in this domain as well as in the specialist area of legal practice.

Would you recommend volunteering to other companies or individuals?

Absolutely!  Volunteering is an invaluable way to connect with the wider community, which we are all part of.  Volunteering can provide much needed support to others in the community, as well as offering all participants a chance to develop as individuals, and to learn new skills.  Volunteering is ultimately a rewarding experience for everyone.