London

• Ranked #1 most frequently appointed counsel in European-based restructurings by value and volume – Debtwire’s Europe Restructuring Advisory Mandates Report for FY23
• London Finance team ranked as finalist for Innovative Lawyers in Private Capital– FT Innovative Lawyers 2024
• Finalist for Legal Adviser of the Year – Real Deals ESG Awards 2024
• Ranked #1 legal advisor to the infrastructure industry by the value of funds raised – IJInvestor Q1 League Tables 2024
• Ranked #1 for large cap restructuring legal advisory engagements on both the company and creditor side from March 2023 to March 2024 – Reorg EMEA Restructuring Advisor Rankings 2024
• Antidiscrimination Firm of the Year – Legal Benchmarking Group Social Impact Awards EMEA 2024
• A number of lawyers in London have garnered market recognition in 2024, including:
• Marco Compagnoni and Jonathan Wood among Europe’s Twenty Most Influential Private Equity Lawyers – Financial News/Private Equity News 2024
• David Avery-Gee and Michael Francies ranked in The Legal 500’s M&A Private Practice Powerlist: UK – The Legal 500 2024
• Tom Richards named among the Most Influential in European Finance – Financial News’ Most Influential in European Finance 2024
• Jenine Hulsmann awarded Highly Commended for Private Practice Lawyer of the Year – Legal Business Awards 2024
• Jenine Hulsmann has been recognized among the Lawyer’s Hot 100 for 2024
• Aron Joy and Jenny Doak, and counsel Daniella Abel recognized as leading tax advisors – International Tax Review’s World Tax 2024
• Patrick Brendon and Alex Eagle named Rising Stars – Financial News’ Rising Stars of European Finance 2024
• Lois Deasey and Jacky Kelly named as finalists for the Lawyer of the Year and Rising Star categories – IFLR1000 Women in Business Law EMEA Awards 2024
• Kai Zhang awarded Rising Star for Finance – IFLR1000 Women in Business Law EMEA Awards 2024
• Jacky Kelly recognized as Among Social Mobility: Private Practice Champions of the Year – Legal 500 ESG Awards 2024
• Wupya Nandap named among the U.K.’s Best Up-and-Coming Black Lawyers – Rising Stars: The UK Legal Industry's Best Up-and-Coming Black Lawyers, Law.com 2024
• Ranked #1 out of 54 law firms with the most LGBTQ+ partners in the UK – Law.com International
• London Antitrust team ranked as Highly Recommended placing the firm on the Global Elite list – Global Competition Review’s GCR 100 2024
• Finalist for Competition & Regulatory team of the year – The Lawyer Awards 2024
• Finalist for Finance Team of the year – The Lawyer Awards 2024
• Finalist for High Yield Team of the Year – IFLR Europe Awards 2024
• Finalist for High Yield Deal of the Year on three of the eight nominated transactions – IFLR Europe Awards 2024
• A number of lawyers in London garnered market recognition in 2023, including:
• Michael Francies and Marco Campagnoni named among the Fifty Most Influential Lawyers – Financial News 2023
• Marco Compagnoni named among the 20 Most Influential Private Equity Lawyers – Private Equity News 2023
• Sarah Flaherty named a Rising Star of Legal Services – Financial News 2023
• James Bromley named among the 40 Under 40: Future Leaders of Private Equity – Private Equity International 2023
• Finalist for Global Law Firm of the Year – Infrastructure Investor Awards 2023
• Recognized for its innovative approach to ESG Advisory and Pro Bono – Real Deals Future 40 ESG Innovator 2023
  
  

Our approach to Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) is central to our culture.

The London office ESG strategy focuses on six key areas: Pro Bono, Inclusion, Community,  Wellness & Social, Climate Action and Governance. Weil has developed an initiative to tackle a range of social issues that impact the economic mobility of its clients, people and communities.

Our award-winning London ESG framework is led by a 25-strong partner and counsel committee who provide oversight, governance and support to the key Business Services teams who run each of the ESG pillars.

Our ESG vision is to enhance the social and economic mobility of our clients, people and communities.  To achieve this aim, we deliver a range of activities and initiatives which ensure we are a responsible business that fosters a healthy, supportive, and inclusive culture for our people to lead healthy lives and reach their full potential to deliver the best service to our clients and communities. This culminates in a corporate environment which both encourages and enables partners and employees to use their time and skills to tackle a range issues in the world around them.

Our ESG strategy is built on six components:

• Pro Bono – Our goal is for all lawyers to perform 50 hours a year of pro bono legal advice and in the London Office, all pro bono hours are counted as billable for the purposes of compensation.  Since 2015, the London office has provided more than 67,000 hours of pro bono work on a range of innovative and complex matters in the social finance, humanitarian and access to justice space.  We see pro bono as a vehicle for skills-development and leadership and it allows our lawyers to harness and develop their legal skills while simultaneously helping organisations with a social purpose achieve their goals. We work with a number of Law Centres and advise a range of leading charities, NGOs and social enterprises, with a particular focus on access to justice and social finance.
• Inclusion – For the past 30 years, Weil has been a leader in investing in formal initiatives to empower and engender an inclusive culture. We have a number of network groups, such as the Weil London Multicultural Network, WeilPride (LGBTQ+ association), Social Mobility@Weil and Women@Weil. We also partner with organizations at the forefront of inclusion issues, such as InterLaw, SEO London, Stonewall and Rare Recruitment. We realize that the job on inclusion is never done, and we therefore focus on continuously educating ourselves, listening to each other, leading by example, speaking out and being allies and upstanders, in order to cultivate a workplace of equitable opportunity in which everyone feels free to bring their full self to work and stand up for principles of diversity, inclusion and belonging, without fear of recrimination or retribution of any kind. This inclusive culture means we have the breadth of ideas and the depth of experience to develop innovative solutions to help our clients achieve their goals. Please click here to see the list of available adjustments for visitors to Weil as well as contact details for any additional requirements.
• Community – All Weil partners and employees are encouraged to spend two days a year volunteering in the community. We place a strong emphasis on social mobility and board-level volunteering. We support around 300 young people a year via WEIL (Widening Entry Into Law), a range of employability programs, and we actively support our people to be appointed as charity trustees or school governors. In addition, we also support a number of grass-roots community organizations across London. Since 2015, partners and employees have spent more than 8,500 hours volunteering. Our community programs are designed to help our people to develop new skills, broaden their horizons and take themselves outside of their comfort zone. Under our five-year fundraising strategy “Improving Lives and Raising Aspirations,” we are supporting six charities – Dress For Success, Glass Door Homeless Shelter, Power2, School-Home Support, Social Mobility Foundation and Suited & Booted – until November 2023. We’ve committed to raising £500,000 during this time to help these charities expand their work in tackling homelessness, reducing poverty and improving social mobility.
• Wellbeing & Social – To enable our people to perform at their best, everyone at Weil has access to a number of benefits, information and support that endorse our culture, and our social schedule aims to support our cohesive values by offering a broad range of annual activities.
• Climate Action – We have received accreditation for ISO50001 (Energy Management System), which is an internationally recognised industry standard (externally audited), aimed at continuous improvement in energy reduction. We have also achieved consistent top level success at the City of London Clean City Awards for a number of years, with our reduction of single use plastics throughout the office and collaboration with service providers being particularly noted. We are members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) and have a Partner lead Climate Action Group within the firm.
• Governance – As a leading law firm we are acutely aware of the importance of a strong compliance culture. We regularly train and educate our people so that they are kept abreast of the regulatory issues affecting our business. We have robust policies and procedures to ensure ongoing compliance and a dedicated team to support our people by horizon scanning for new and developing areas of regulation. This is all underpinned by a governance structure that promotes upward reporting by having clear lines of responsibility and ownership.

ESG in numbers 2015 – 2024 (inclusive)

• 106,000 hours of pro bono
• 68 hours per lawyer per year
• 800+ pro bono matters
• 16,000+ volunteering hours
• Supported 5,000+ state school students via employability workshops, work experience, mentoring and career talks
• £1m raised for charities
• Legal 500 ESG Awards - Social Mobility Champion of the Year (2024), Social Mobility Employer Index: Top 75 Employer 2023, ESG Advisory and Pro Bono: Real Deals Future 40 ESG Innovator 2023, Best CSR Team of the Year and Best Legal Partnership at the Business Charity Awards (2022) Law.com Top UK Firms for Pro Bono (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)