At Wijn & Stael, we are committed to creating a better society and strive to be conscious of the impact of our activities on people and the environment, seeking a good balance between people, planet, and profit. By doing so, we aim to contribute to a better world.
For us, Corporate Social Responsibility is not an end goal, but a continuous process of doing better.
Equal opportunities
In our profession, a good command of the Dutch language is essential. In addition, a good command of the Dutch language contributes to equal opportunities, which we consider important as a law firm. In 2021, we therefore chose a central theme as a law firm for which we want to commit ourselves in the coming years:
'Language development in children and young people in the Utrecht region'
For this purpose, we have supported and developed various initiatives.
Socially committed
We are a socially committed law firm that wants to make a social contribution. We aim to achieve this by being a partner or initiator of social organizations and (own) initiatives, each of which contributes to our society in their own way, including:
We support various cultural institutions such as:
Sustainable office We try to reduce our own footprint by:
Below you will find some examples of the various initiatives that we have supported and/or developed.
We sponsored the development of the children's book 'De Spoken van het Stadhuis'. This book was published in 2022 on the occasion of the 900th anniversary of the city of Utrecht. Weekly, our attorneys and employees read from this children's book to children in libraries in Utrecht and we also distribute the book.
In 2022, we started a collaboration with the foundation 'Taal Doet Meer' (Language Does More). ‘Taal Doet Meer’ aims to contribute to mutual understanding and communication among Utrecht residents. With a network of volunteers and partners, they ensure that language is not a barrier to participating in Utrecht society. We support various initiatives of the foundation, including a school project where we aim to teach children the importance of language.
In 2023, we will launch a new project in primary schools in Utrecht where language proficiency is a concern, in the form of a practice court. In the classroom, we will talk to children (grades 6/7/8) about our profession, the judiciary, and the importance of language. We will work on a case and prepare a plea. The children will deliver the plea in a real gown to the judges in a mock trial. In this way, we aim to teach the children the importance of language and to inspire them.
After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Else Loes Pasma (Managing Partner) made a call to all top 50 law firms to sign a declaration asking to stop representing the interests of those who (directly) facilitate the war against Ukraine. 20 firms signed it. After the publication of the declaration, many other firms joined the initiative. Various media outlets covered the action: see the article on Mr. Online and the article on Risk and Business.
A local initiative is our clean-up action at Park Lepelenburg. After sunny days during the last lockdown in 2021, the park in front of our office was covered in litter. This problem grew every day, so we decided to clean up the park ourselves to increase awareness. For a week, we cleaned the park with our colleagues at the beginning of each workday. We received many positive reactions from locals, and national newspapers and TV channels covered the initiative (see here the article and video on RTV Utrecht).
