Foreword
Collaboration is not only one of our core values, it is also a key differentiator in terms of our strategic approach. We truly believe that the way we work in partnership with our colleagues, our clients and our community sets us apart and helps to deepen and strengthen all of those relationships.
Over the following pages, you will find multiple examples of this collaboration in action, demonstrating how we deliver positive outcomes for those we work with, which set the tone for some remarkable projects that we are proud to have been a part of.
As Senior Partner, I continue to drive forward our commitment to being a Responsible Business, which means putting our clients, our people, our community and our environment at the heart of the firm. At our recent AGM, we reaffirmed our belief that the firm has a purpose beyond the legal transactions we handle on a daily basis and emphasised our wish to be part of an organisation that genuinely makes a positive contribution to society. This annual report highlights some examples where we have made a real difference on the projects we have been involved with, but there are a fantastic range of activities currently being undertaken across Burges Salmon to promote social mobility, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and environmental sustainability often in partnership with local community groups and charities as well as other UK and international organisations.
This report also highlights some of the international work we are involved in and we continue to deepen our relationships with our Preferred Firm Network of independent law firms for the benefit of our UK and overseas clients.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients for their continued support and all of our people for their commitment to making Burges Salmon the special law firm that it is today.
Chris Seaton, Senior Partner
I am now well into my first year as the firm’s Managing Partner, following Peter Morris’ successful eight year tenure in this role. I have been with Burges Salmon for 24 years, previously as Head of our Employment practice, and I am very proud to be the first Managing Partner to have trained with the firm. To operate effectively in this role requires close working relationships with our clients, our business services professionals, our lawyers, our suppliers and our contractors. Working collaboratively with this diverse group of stakeholders has been one of the highlights of the transition into my new role.
Reflecting on the past year for the business, the UK market remained volatile in light of Brexit uncertainty but we were able to continue to grow the firm through our focus on our clients and other stakeholders. It is rewarding to note that the quality of the clients we are working with, and the scale and the complexity of the projects we are engaged in, continues to impress, as illustrated in the articles that follow. This success is undoubtedly the result of our commitment to collaboration with clients and our ability to deploy our deep legal expertise effectively and commercially.
We continue to invest in our business, to drive innovation across our service offering, to support our people and to combine the skills of our lawyers and our business services professionals for the benefit of our clients. We are also investing in legal service delivery and client relationship management technologies to enhance that collaboration still further. We welcome the opportunity to support our clients’ aims and ambitions, and we can only do this by working alongside our clients on their milestone projects.
I hope you enjoy reading about some of this work over the last 12 months, demonstrating how teams from across the firm have successfully collaborated with our clients to deliver truly transformational projects, and we look forward to working with you in 2019.
Roger Bull, Managing Partner