As part of the firm’s CSR programme every member of staff may take an unlimited number of days to volunteer for a firm-approved charity or community project such as:
- gardening at Hammersmith City Community Gardens;
- an art therapy session with adults with learning disabilities at Arts For All;
- weighing and sorting food at Harold Hill Foodbank; and
- supporting chefs and packaging meals at Felix’s Kitchen.
This also forms part of our trainee solicitor induction.
Hemisphere Education in schools with Legal CORE
Legal CORE (Collaboration on Race and Ethnicity) is a leadership-led, cross-firm collective aimed at tackling the under-representation of ethnic minority groups in the UK legal sector. 21 Legal CORE member firms have partnered with RARE to fund racial literacy training in schools via a new social impact initiative Hemisphere Education. The partnership will offer the training to selected UK schools every year, for three years.
Hemisphere is a brain-training platform that disrupts unconscious bias and improves racial literacy. From hair, to names, to cultural norms, Hemisphere provides teachers with a toolkit to understand, safeguard and nourish black students. Over 85% of teachers have never had any specific training on the experience of black children in education.
Macfarlanes is one of the founding members of Legal CORE and the firm will be supporting three schools via this initiative.
The best unconscious bias training that my staff could have. This isn’t just about race. It’s about wanting to do our best by our students — and we do that by building relationships and a sense of belonging.