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Global Standard of Ethical Conduct - doing business responsibly

At Pinsent Masons, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. Our Global Standard of Ethical Conduct is the baseline set of principles for the way Pinsent Masons conducts business and what we expect our people to uphold. It encompasses what we think is important, what we hold dear and is the foundation to us making business work better for people – in our local communities and through our global connections.

Our Global Standard of Ethical Conduct provides a guide to:

(1) all of our people who are required to combine making ethical decisions and judgments with excellence in client service and;

(2) all of those who we engage with in the communities in which we operate.

Upholding the Global Standard of Ethical Conduct is the responsibility of each and every one of us. Only by working together can we resolve issues and be a better business as a result.

The key elements are as follows:

Integrity, Honesty and Trust

Our dealings with everyone that we engage with are honest, transparent, fair and ethical.
Our relationships are based on mutual trust and confidence.We should be able to rely on each other to act professionally and to do the right thing.
Our people will collaborate and make difficult decisions in challenging circumstances and stand by them.
We will seek to ensure that we are not misrepresented in what we do and say, and we will not mislead others.
Our people will maintain the confidentiality of client information, even after the end of our work for the client, and everyone will respect the confidentiality of business information, unless there are overriding legal obligations.
We will ensure that we act in our clients' best interests in our work for them, subject to our duties to the court, to observe the law and to maintain ethical standards.

Independence

Our independence and integrity is reflected in policies and procedures which require our people to adhere to strict standards around insider dealing, anti-bribery, gifts and hospitality etc.
Our advice to clients is objective, independent and free from inappropriate pressures.Our people are unwilling to put themselves in a position which creates a personal or professional conflict of interest.

Dignity and Respect

We treat everyone equally, respecting the views of those who see things from a different perspective and those who challenge us.
We value diversity and we are inclusive, we want all of the people we engage with to feel they can safely be themselves within our offices.
Our respect for the professional standards, laws and rules applicable in the jurisdictions that we operate in must be unfailing.

Global Citizenship

We will adhere to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principles of the UN Global Compact in the conduct of our business, and we will not accept forced or child labour or modern slavery of any kind.
We will manage our impact on the environment by adopting policies and processes which promote the responsible use of natural resources.
We are committed to inspiring young lives in our local communities and encouraging our people to volunteer through our Starfish community investment programme.