Introduction
The UK Modern Slavery Act came into force in October 2015 and requires large commercial organisations doing business in the UK to publish statements on their websites setting out the steps they have taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in their own businesses or in any of their supply chains.
Sidley Austin LLP is committed to the constant improvement of our practices to prevent slavery and human trafficking from occurring within our business and supply chain. We expect the same high standards of our suppliers.
This statement is made on behalf of the London office of Sidley Austin LLP pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement.
About Sidley Austin LLP
Sidley is one of the world’s largest law firms. We are an international law firm with offices in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Chicago, Dallas, Geneva, Houston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Washington D.C. With approximately 1,800 lawyers, we provide a broad range of services to meet the global needs of businesses across a multitude of industries, as well as financial institutions, governments and individuals.
Established in 1974, and offering an English law capability since 1994, Sidley’s London office has approximately 120 English and US-qualified lawyers, the majority of whom are qualified to practise English law. We advise on domestic and cross-border matters and have been involved in many highly complex and pioneering transactions across our principal areas of practice: debt finance (including structured finance and derivatives) real estate and real estate finance, hedge funds and investment funds, corporate and M&A, financial services regulatory, debt and equity capital markets, insurance, corporate reorganisation and bankruptcy, dispute resolution (including insurance and reinsurance disputes), antitrust/competition and tax.
Separate partnerships, which are affiliated with one another, are responsible for the operations of Sidley Austin’s offices around the world. Sidley Austin carries on business in the UK through Sidley Austin LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. Further details about our partnership structure can be found here, under “Collective Designations”
https://www.sidley.com/en/sidley-pages/terms-and-conditions
Our Business and Supply Chains
At Sidley, we strive to build and retain the best possible personnel and supply chains to support and help grow our business.
Given the nature of our business and our relatively limited supply chains, we consider the risk of slavery or human trafficking occurring in our business or supply chain to be low.
Our supply chain primarily comprises providers of goods and services, such as stationery and office equipment, that allow our personnel to provide legal advice to our clients. We also work with other sophisticated suppliers of legal services, including law firms in other jurisdictions and barristers.
Our Policies
We expect every member of the Sidley team to act in a manner which promotes the development of a workplace which is free from discrimination or harassment of any kind and which complies with all applicable laws. Our policies reflect that expectation.
It is also our policy to engage with our supply chain to confirm that our suppliers are adhering to the same high standards. In particular, key suppliers must provide details of the corporate and social responsibility policies they have in place, including in respect of issues covered by the UK Modern Slavery Act.
With regard to Sidley personnel, our policy is to provide appropriate and relevant training. In particular, training will be provided for those with procurement responsibilities, so that they are able to assess the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.
January 2018