Corporate Social Responsibility

LALIVE has a long tradition of active involvement in the community, endeavouring to use its legal knowledge and expertise for the benefit of those in need, as well as fostering initiatives designed to promote legal education and enforcement. The firm also regularly makes donations to assist various charities as well as law students.

The firm’s lawyers regularly engage in pro bono legal work.  They also devote significant time to international organisations (such as UNCITRAL, WTO/ITC, UNITAR, ILA, TRIAL) and key Swiss and international professional associations and institutions in their field of expertise, becoming involved in the drafting of policy papers, country reports, model agreements, regulatory texts, legislative proposals and training programmes.

Illustrations of LALIVE’s early pro bono activities  include Professor LALIVE successfully representing an Algerian asylum seeker in his appeal before the la Commission suisse de recours en matière d’asile (CRA) in the 1990s and Ms Giovannini acting pro bono for a number of years for a private art foundation that had been set up for the benefit of emerging countries.

"We very much value your support, which has played a vital role in ensuring that we function properly as an organisation, which in turn allows us to focus our limited budget on our front line human rights work."

Amnesty International

"Our Swiss entity could not have been set up without the highly appreciated pro-bono legal advice offered by LALIVE"

WeRobotics
  • Provision of legal services to a leading global conservation and environmental organisation in relation to multi-million USD philanthropic donations from a leading Swiss foundation and its clients, both in Switzerland and abroad. The firm advised on cross-border fundraising issues derived from the international nature of both the recipient and donors, raised concerns regarding the grant match and donor agreements and advised on compliance issues related to inclusion in the institution’s marketing materials.
  • Provision of legal services to Amnesty International on the structure of its Geneva office, including advice on matters of corporate law, labour law and social security law. LALIVE has also represented the organisation before the Geneva courts in relation to a lease dispute.
  • Partnering with Aid for International Development (A4ID) in providing pro bono legal services to various NGOs (a4id.org/).
  • Provision of pro bono legal advice to WeRobotics, an NGO aiming to accelerate and scale the impact of humanitarian aid, global development and environmental protection efforts through robotics solutions, in the creation and establishment of their Swiss entity, which will act as a base for fundraising activities in Switzerland and Europe as well as coordinate projects out of Switzerland.
  • Pro bono legal advice to the Global Initiative on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) on Swiss employment law and on the incorporation of a non-profit entity.
  • Pro bono legal advice to Penal Reform International on sentencing of female abuse victims for violent crime against abusers and the rights of prisoners to vote in Switzerland.
  • Pro bono legal advice to The Hepatitis Fund on the review of multiple contractual documents in connection with the hiring of employees in Geneva.
  • Pro bono legal advice to pretac+, an association based on the innovative model “discovering hands” that leverages visually impaired women’s highly developed sense of touch to screen for early breast cancer detection.
  • Pro bono legal advice to Association Caméléon on securing the IP rights of a Swiss child’s drawing, to be used for the association’s merchandising.
  • Pro bono legal advice to the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) on the criminalisation of petty offences in Namibia and Mozambique.
  • Pro bono legal advice to Wikimedia on the use, storage and reproduction of images by Wikipedia.
  • Provision of strategic advice to the Cedar Foundation, a non-profit active in the social sphere field, regarding the incorporation of a non-profit entity in Switzerland including advice on the advantages and disadvantages in acting as a global hub for its operations and entities in other countries.
  • Provision of legal services to an international non-governmental organisation which responds to natural disasters and crises, as well as conflicts that uproot communities, with respect to insolvency issues raised by its Swiss entity.
  • Active involvement in the Human Rights Commission of the Geneva Bar Association (ODA) and working on its pro bono platform project aimed at connecting Geneva-based NGOs involved in the field of human rights and local law firms interested in providing pro bono services to them.
  • Involvement in the organisation of a charity concert in support of research and treatment of serious diseases, in particular skin cancer, by the Department of Dermatology of University Hospital of Zurich and the Bruno Bloch foundation
  • Donation to the Pink Ribbons Project (in support of breast cancer awareness, prevention and treatment for women in need in the United States) (www.pinkribbons.org)
  • Donation to the Kids Company (in support of inner city children in difficulty in the United Kingdom) (www.kidsco.org.uk)
  • Donation to a number of children’s charities including Save the Children directly and through participation in charity balls
  • Donation of books on international law and arbitration for the use of Ukrainian law schools
  • Provision of yearly scholarship covering the full tuition fees and living expenses of one student to undertake the Graduate Institute’s MIDS- Geneva LL.M. in International Dispute Settlement for an academic year.
  • Financial support to students to fund their participation in moot competitions, such as the Vienna Vis moot and the Frankfurt Investment moot.

LALIVE is committed to reducing the environmental impact of its work.  The firm’s policies include:

  • Working with Zurich-based organisation myclimate to reduce the impact of the firm’s CO2 emissions by investing in worthwhile sustainability and climate protection projects and changing internal policies. The projects LALIVE is currently supporting include a local Swiss project promoting climate-optimised forest management in the canton Solothurn (further information is available here), and a project in Uganda to help distribute water purification systems to low-​income households and institutions such as schools (further information is available here)
  • Monitoring and reducing energy consumption by automatic hibernation of computers, using low energy bulbs, motion sensors and automatic switches on lighting
  • Reducing paper use through electronic archiving and default double-sided printing
  • Favouring electronic means of communication, including Skype and video conferences over travel whenever possible
  • Systematic recycling of paper, PET bottles, glass and aluminium
  • Purifying and bottling drinking water on-site in order to avoid one-use plastic bottles

LALIVE is proud to be a member of the United Nations Global Compact and active member of the Swiss & Liechtenstein Network.

Launched in 2000, the UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative in the world, with more than 9,500 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and over 70 Local Networks.

For more information on the initiative, visit the Swiss & Liechtenstein Network – UN Global Compact website and to learn more about our latest sustainability work click here.

You will find the UN Global Compact report March 2022 here.

 

THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT

1. HUMAN RIGHTS: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

2. make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

3. LABOUR: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

4. the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

5. the effective abolition of child labour; and

6. the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

7. ENVIRONMENT: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

8. undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

9. encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

10. ANTI-CORRUPTION: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

For more information see www.unglobalcompact.org