Sustainability

At Glimstedt, we work systematically to become a more sustainable company, and we constantly accept new challenges with ever higher targets. Sustainability permeates all areas of our business and forms part of both our daily and our long-term work. With a shared commitment to sustainability, we create long-term progess together.

An attractive place to work

To us, conducting sustainable  business involves acting ethically, promoting good stakeholder relationships and contributing to the creation of a well-functioning society through, for example, pro bono work. Our ethos includes an equal treatment policy, efforts to improve our workplace and the environment, recruitment and skills development, as well as our work relating to matters such as parenthood, salary and employment conditions, harassment, and our responsibility as an employer.

• Equality and equal treatment: We have for a long time been striving to achieve an even gender distribution across all professional roles. Although we have not yet reached our goal, we have a high proportion of female partners compared with other leading Swedish law firms today. This is a pole position that we are proud of and strive to maintain. Our ambition is to ensure that men and women receive equal pay, and we are closely monitoring developments in this area of the industry. Glimstedt has for many years had a policy and action plan in place regarding negative discrimination, harassment and bullying. This means that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination, and that we believe all people are of equal value and should be treated on the basis of their individual circumstances and opportunities, regardless of sex, gender identity or expression, ethnic background, religion or other belief systems, disability, sexual orientation or age.
• Environment: We actively work on environmental issues as part of our day-to-day business. To lessen our impact on the environment, we strive to conserve energy, recycle waste, reduce our consumption of materials and choose products with a low environmental impact. We choose to conduct interactive rather than physical meetings, and if we do have to travel, we would choose to take the train instead of flying.
• Skills development and working environment: Participation permeates our organisation. We are committed to ensuring that everyone is able to participate in and influence their own development as well as the firm’s progress. Skills development is available to all employees, and the transfer of knowledge will benefit everyone equally. We also welcome trainees and students to visit us for a period of time and become familiar with the industry as well as with our organisation, and hopefully join us as a colleague in the future. We place great value on encouraging a life-work balance with reasonable working hours and the option of flexibility.
• Business ethics: Under The Swedish Bar Association guidelines, we are obliged to promote anti-corruption and anti-money laundering, and we do this with the help of our money laundering policy and the Bar Association’s guidelines for lawyers and law firms on legislation regarding anti-money laundering and terrorist financing. This means that we must gather sufficient knowledge of our clients in order to rule out any risk of money laundering.

Sustainability and our society

Like all law firms, Glimstedt plays a potentially significant role in developing a sustainable society. This applies to lawyers in the industry, to our clients and to society at large. For example, there are opportunities for pro-bono activities and it is not unusual for our lawyers to be involved in various associations as board members thanks to their expertise. We also sponsor various organisations, especially at the local level.

One of the most important things that a lawyer can offer society is the ability to advise their clients better than anyone else regarding the different standard systems that affect the client. We frequently assist clients in identifying risks associated with acquisition or listing processes, drawing up prospectuses or cooperation agreements. Robust advice is needed in all these instances, and sustainability aspects in various laws, industry standards and international practices often affect the client, something that we jointly manage. Glimstedt helps clients prepare and ensure that they are up to standard with the common business law processes. Therefore, in order to ensure that we are always up to date in this regard, we constantly aim to keep up with developments in the area of sustainability, to know which frameworks and standards are relevant and how they affect our ability to provide reliable advice.