Statement pursuant to section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 for the financial year ending 31 December 2023.

This statement is published on behalf of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, a legal practice, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) under registration number 287488, and references to “we” and “the firm” are to that entity.

Our approach

We are committed to achieving high standards of ethical behavior in the conduct of our business and to acting with integrity in all our business relationships. We do not tolerate slavery, human trafficking or abusive or unfair treatment in any part of our business or in any part of our supply chain.

Structure and Supply Chains

We are a limited liability partnership established in Delaware, USA, with an office in London, UK. We are a solicitors’ practice and as such are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We have no subsidiaries but are affiliated to a US law firm of the same name which has subsidiaries in Germany and Belgium. Our clients are based all over the world.

We have considered our current suppliers and our business by size and risk profile and assessed the risk of slavery or trafficking being present in our annual review in 2023. Our primary suppliers include suppliers of office and professional support services and regulated law firms and barristers. None of our suppliers are engaged seasonally and we do not have employees on seasonal contracts. We do occasionally engage lawyers on temporary contracts through reputable agencies. We have internal procedures in place to ensure adequate procurement pricing and prompt payment of our suppliers. We found no cause for concern in our annual review in 2023. We have determined that our business is low risk for slavery and human trafficking.

Policies in relation to slavery and human trafficking.

We have an internal policy on Anti-Slavery which we review and, where necessary, update on an annual basis.

We have whistleblowing policies and procedures and our employee code of conduct contains grievance procedures.

Identification of Risks and Steps we take to Identify and Manage those Risks.

We are continuing to take steps to ensure that slavery and human trafficking play no part in our supply chain and our business. We undertake an annual review of our key suppliers and meet with our key suppliers at least annually.

The main area of risk in our supply chain and our business identified through our annual review in 2023 was in relation to the hiring of outsourced catering staff. Appropriate due diligence is conducted when we engage with such suppliers to mitigate that risk. In practice we only use reputable outsourcing agencies and we comply with all local laws and regulations. We take all reasonable steps to mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking in this area.

Due Diligence Processes

We have maintained our procurement procedure throughout the year with regard to the engagement of all new contractors to the Firm. Risk of slavery remains one of the evaluation criteria behind our selection of new suppliers.

Effectiveness in Preventing Slavery and Human Trafficking

We found no evidence of Slavery or Human Trafficking in our annual review. We have had no grievance claims or complaints made through our whistleblowing processes in relation to modern slavery or human trafficking.

Training and Capacity Building

We train appropriate members of the firm. We have introduced Modern Slavery as a topic in our induction training and we trained all new members of the firm in 2023. 

Stephen Pollard, Partner

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP

22 April 2024