Purpose of this Statement
This statement is made on behalf of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP in accordance with Section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 ("the Act"). It covers the financial year of 1 May 2024 to 30 April 2025 (“the Reporting Period”).
Overview of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP
Eversheds Sutherland (international) LLP is a global law firm with over 33 offices and related entities in 19 jurisdictions around the world. Registered as a limited liability partnership in England and Wales, ESI LLP employs over 3,700 people worldwide.
References in this statement to "we", "us" and "our" are to Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP as defined above.
We provide legal and commercial advice and solutions across a number of sectors to our international client base, which includes some of the world’s largest multinationals. To find out more about our structure, what we do and our values, please visit the about us section of our website.
Our Responsible Business strategy
Our Responsible Business strategy is to help create a better, fairer world for all, while delivering on our purpose of helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive.
We have published our latest Responsible Business report, highlighting the progress we made over the last 12 months, to include our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking progress. The latest Responsible Business report can be found on our website here.
As a participant in the UN Global Compact, we are required to submit a Communication on Progress (“COP”) each year. The COP sets out details of how we uphold the UNGC’s Ten Principles across the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption and is published on the UNGC website. Our COP submission to the UNGC for both 2024 and 2025 submissions can be found here.
As part of our commitment to being a responsible business, we aim to integrate responsible and sustainable practices throughout our operations. We do this across the four pillars of our responsible business strategy; people, community, environment and governance and ethics.
People
We are committed to maintaining a safe, healthy and engaging work environment that goes beyond complying with health and safety laws. We support the mental, social and physical wellbeing of our people. In addition, we are committed to growing and maintaining a diverse workforce that champions a wide range of perspectives and experiences, and building an inclusive, supportive and respectful environment where people feel able to bring their whole selves to work and can thrive.
We apply strict criteria in the recruitment and employment of our people. We conduct due diligence on our prospective employees prior to them joining. When recruiting, we comply with local employment legislation and applicable regulations.
We have an Employee Assistance programme (‘EAP’), which is a confidential assistance programme available to all employees and their immediate family members. It provides information, support and guidance 24/7, 365 days a year via telephone, email, web chat, face to face, or online information portals. The EAP actively supports employees through everyday matters, as well as more significant challenges including mental wellbeing, physical health, work, personal relationships, family and life events.
We are signatories to the Mindful Business Charter and continue to raise awareness of the importance of wellbeing via participation in Mental Health Awareness Week (May), World Mental Health Day (October) and through campaigns and contributions from people across our business.
We have a grievance policy which provides a consistent approach to raising concerns within the firm and sets out how they will be managed. We promote a Speak Up culture and encourage our people to feel empowered to call out any breaches of our policies (including our Modern Slavery policy) via our Whistleblowing reporting lines. To support this we have an independent international whistleblowing reporting facility which allows reports to be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week via telephone or in writing via an online portal. Reports may be made anonymously and in local languages if required.
Community
We encourage all our lawyers to be involved in pro bono work, allowing them to develop key skills, broaden their networks and enhance wellbeing while helping our communities to thrive. From May 2024 to April 2025, colleagues across the business committed over 15,500 hours to pro bono legal work and we are proud to have won the Pro Bono Outstanding Firm at Chambers UK Awards 2025. We also provide opportunities for business service professionals to work on our pro bono initiatives. A number of these pro bono initiatives are relevant to modern slavery and human rights.
Environment
EcoVadis is one of the world’s largest sustainability ratings providers. We currently hold a Bronze rating, awarded in February 2025, placing our firm among the top 30% of companies assessed.
Each year, we use the EcoVadis assessment tool to evaluate our policies, practices, and performance across 21 sustainability issues, grouped into four key themes: Labour and Human Rights, Ethics, Environment, and Sustainable Procurement. The assessment also provides a corrective action plan with suggested improvements.
Governance and Ethics
Eversheds Sutherland has an Ethics Committee made up of partners, as well as representatives from the Executive and the Board. The Committee meets every six months to review and address key ethical considerations related to the onboarding of new clients and the continued engagement with existing ones.
Our Policies and Procedures
We have a wide range of policies and procedures in place to support our strategy of being a responsible business. These policies help ensure that we act with integrity and accountability in all our business dealings and relationships, in compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
In April 2025, we introduced a new Supplier Ethical Code of Conduct which outlines our expectations of suppliers when conducting business with our firm.
The Supplier Code is built on four core principles:
- Compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements at all times
- To comply with all policies as required by Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP
- Help deliver our purpose of ‘helping our clients, our people and our communities to thrive’
- Support our values of inclusive, professional, open, creative and collaborative
To be considered as a supplier to the firm, businesses are asked to review and acknowledge the contents of the Code, reinforcing our commitment to strong, values-based partnerships.
As of August 2025, we have issued the Code to 112 suppliers in the UK, consisting of a mix of existing and new suppliers. 79 have formally acknowledged the Code, equating to 70.5% of recipients. With the planned introduction of a new procurement platform later this year, we will be able to automatically issue the Code to potential new suppliers, as well as existing suppliers when they are asked to review and update their risk information. The Code is publicly available here.
Our Supplier Ethical Code of Conduct aligns with our Eversheds Sutherland Ethical Code of Conduct, which is the Code that applies to all of our people. The Code sits alongside our legal and regulatory requirements and brings to life how we conduct ourselves with our clients, our communities and each other in support of that commitment. The Code is publicly available here.
We have the following internal policies and documentation to ensure we observe the highest personal, ethical and professional standards:
- Anti-Slavery and Human trafficking Policy
- Modern Slavery Code of Conduct and Annual Declaration
- Whistleblowing Policy
- Bullying and Harassment Policy
- Equality and Diversity Policy
We encourage all colleagues, contractors, clients and third parties to speak up if they suspect any wrongdoing at the firm, which includes any suspected breaches of our policies, to include our Anti-Slavery and Human trafficking Policy.
Training
We have delivered training on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking for all employees. The training emphasises that Modern Slavery is not tolerated in our firm or supply chains and provides instructions on reporting any concerns through our whistleblowing process. We monitor the completion of this training module. In 2022, the training was provided to everyone in the firm and the completion rate was 98%. Since then, all new starters are required to complete the module, for the reporting period the completion rate was 94.8% and for 2023/24 was 98.5%.
Our clients
Eversheds Sutherland is a founding member of the Business and Human Rights Lawyers Association. The association met during the reporting period to advance business and human rights leadership, learning, collaboration and compare practice among commercial law firms around the world.
Our mandatory training on Modern Slavery for our lawyers contains additional information on the red flags to look for within specific work types, which may indicate a risk of modern slavery in the matters or transactions we are advising on for our clients. Our subject matter experts within our practice groups can then, if needed, help advise our clients on how best to respond to any issues identified.
Risk Assessment - Our Business
We are a professional services firm strictly regulated by professional regulatory bodies in the jurisdictions in which we operate, and our ongoing assessment is that there is a low risk of slavery or human trafficking occurring within our own business. This assessment is based on a number of factors, including that our business is primarily comprised of permanently employed, skilled staff, in a client-focused service sector, regulated within strict ethical frameworks.
No instances of Modern Slavery were reported or identified within our business during the reporting period.
We consider there to be a greater risk of slavery or human trafficking occurring within our supply chain than within our own business.
Risk Assessment - Our Supply Chain
Our supply chain is built around supporting our core legal practice and maintaining the firms business services, technology and infrastructure. As such, our suppliers fall into two main categories:
- Professional Services Suppliers who are mainly used in the provision of our legal services to our clients, these suppliers include for example other law firms, barristers, accountants, tax advisors, insurance providers and external training providers; and
- Business Services Suppliers who are used by our business services teams to ensure the firm can maintain its normal day-to-day operations, such as catering, security, print and document services and its technology and infrastructure, such as IT systems and software.
We consider our professional services suppliers to present a low risk of modern slavery and human trafficking. These suppliers typically consist of skilled professionals operating within regulated frameworks. As a result, we do not undertake individual risk assessments for each professional services supplier. We consider there is a greater risk of slavery or human trafficking occurring within our business services suppliers.
To manage this risk, we utilise a Supplier Relationship Management platform for our business services suppliers providing services to our offices in the UK. This platform enables us to conduct risk assessments and due diligence prior to onboarding. Suppliers are categorised as low, medium, or high risk in relation to modern slavery. . Depending on this assessment, there are different due diligence steps. The suppliers assessed are required to confirm adherence to our Modern Slavery Code of Conduct, which outlines the minimum standards expected. Additionally, medium and high risk suppliers are required to complete a Modern Slavery Declaration with further questions to enable us to undertake a more detailed due diligence check. If they meet our required standards, they are onboarded.
For business services suppliers providing services to our offices outside of the UK, risk assessments are conducted by our Supplier Management Team. These suppliers are similarly categorised as low, medium, or high risk. The same due diligence process applies: all suppliers must confirm adherence to our Modern Slavery Code of Conduct, and medium and high risk suppliers must complete a Modern Slavery Declaration. Only those who meet our required standards are onboarded.
We have standard contractual clauses for inclusion in our supplier contracts. These include a specific prohibition against the use of modern slavery and trafficked labour, and a requirement to comply with our Modern Slavery Code of Conduct. These clauses are included in the contracts we enter into with our UK based Business Services Suppliers. Should we discover there has been a breach of these contractual clauses, we are entitled to give immediate written notice to the supplier to terminate the contract.
No instances of Modern Slavery within our supply chain were reported to us during the reporting period.
Measuring Effectiveness
During the reporting period, via our Supplier Relationship Management platform, we have risk assessed 93 new business services suppliers. We have undertaken the required due diligence on these suppliers in line with our Modern Slavery Due Diligence programme. Out of the 93 assessed, 81 were assessed as a low risk of Modern Slavery, 12 were assessed as a medium risk, and none were assessed as a high risk. Of the 12 assessed as medium risk, this is due to the nature of the services being provided (for example catering or construction) however, having undertaken due diligence on these suppliers, we are satisfied they are taking appropriate action to mitigate any risk of there being Modern Slavery in their business and supply chains. Of the 93 suppliers assessed, 88% have agreed to adhere to our Modern Slavery Code of Conduct. The remaining 12% have provided us with their own Code of Conduct which aligns with the requirements set out in our Modern Slavery Code of Conduct.
| Measurement | FY2024/2025 | FY2023/24 | FY2022/23 |
| Incidents of Modern Slavery Reported in our business | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Incidents of Modern Slavery Reported in our supply chain | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Number of new Suppliers risk assessed for risks of Modern Slavery | 93 | 244 | 170 |
| Number of Suppliers risk assessed as a low risk for Modern Slavery | 81 | 234 | 160 |
| Number of Suppliers risk assessed as a medium risk of Modern Slavery | 12 | 10 | 9 |
| Number of Suppliers risk assessed as a high risk of Modern Slavery | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Number of Suppliers who agreed to adhere to our Modern Slavery code of Conduct | 82 (88%) | 232 (95%) | 161 (95%) |
| Number of Suppliers who had their own Code of Conduct for Modern Slavery which aligned with our Code of Conduct | 11 (12%) | 12 (5%) | 9 (5%) |
|
*New to 2025* Number of Suppliers wh1o agreed to adhere to our new Supplier Ethical Code of Conduct |
112 | - | - |
Continuous focus on preventing slavery and trafficking
We remain committed to strengthening our approach to preventing slavery and human trafficking across our operations and supply chains. In the financial year ending 30 April 2026, we will focus on the following key actions:
- We will continue to risk assess new business services suppliers providing services to our offices in the UK, through our Supplier Relationship Management platform, and carry out annual due diligence on medium and high risk suppliers with whom we have an ongoing relationship.
- We will upgrade our Supplier Relationship Management platform to enable us to:-
- Complete a refresh of the due diligence as and when required, for example annually for our existing medium and high risk business services suppliers providing services to our offices in the UK.
- Risk assess business services suppliers providing services to our offices outside of the UK.
Approval
This statement was approved by Helen Thomas, Managing Partner International on 3 October 2025 on behalf of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and Eversheds Sutherland Legal Services Limited.
Helen Thomas, Managing Partner International
Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and Eversheds Sutherland Legal Services Limited
Previous statements
- View our 2023-2024 Modern Slavery Statement
- View our 2022-2023 Modern Slavery Statement
- View our 2021-2022 Modern Slavery Statement