SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
At KLA, the ESG principles (environmental, social and governance) are under the care of the Social Responsibility Committee. The Committee is made up of partners and employees and has the support of other internal committees, such as the Executive Committee and the Ethics and Discipline Committee.
The Social Responsibility Committee actively works to engage members in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) actions, in addition to sustainability and volunteering practices in partnership with Racial Affinity and LGBTI+ Groups. The most recent activities are described in the ESG KLA 2022 Report (click here to access the full text).
PRO BONO
The practice of pro bono law has been part of KLA since it was founded in 2002. Through a partnership with the Pro Bono Institute and the Thomson Reuters Foundation, our lawyers provide advice, with the same commitment and quality offered to our clients, entities that deal with socio-environmental matters, from their formal constitution to guidance on fundraising, consultations on legislation applicable to their activities, contracts, elaboration of data protection policies, labor consultations and human rights.
KLA is recognized by several rankings and international entities for its pro bono practice. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, we were classified by Latin Lawyer and Vance Center as “Pro Bono Leading Light”, in a publication about firms with a notable contribution to strengthening the pro bono culture in Latin America. That same year, the “Working Together for Freedom of Information in Ecuador” project, on the development of Ecuador’s Access to Information Law, carried out by KLA together with Fundamedios and other offices in Latin America, won the TrustLaw Collaboration 2020 award.
DIVERSITY
Gender diversity is one of the main aspects of our actions for diversity and inclusion. More than 50% of our workforce is made up of women.
KLA also supports the “Incluir Direito” project by CESA – Centro de Estudos das Sociedades de Advogados, which brings together, among important law firms, lawyers and lawyers to mentor young black men and women, law students. Many KLA lawyers voluntarily participate in the project with mentoring meetings for students.
In 2018, due to its commitment to diversity, KLA received the “Selo Paulista de Diversidade”, which aims to highlight public, private and civil society organizations that develop or commit to creating programs, projects and actions to promote and valuing diversity in their work environments and in their areas of activity.
Starting in 2021, we became supporters of the Next Generation of Lawyers, a Civics initiative to empower law students, through training for the development of soft and hard skills, necessary for the job market. In the same year, we received the CESA 2021 seal of Gender Equity and, in 2022, we became partners in the Black Connection project, an initiative of the Public Ministry of Labor and the ILO Brazil that aims to contribute to the training of black men and women for their placement in the legal careers.
SUSTAINABILITY
Our initiatives to foster a sustainable legal practice environment are part of the activities of the Social Responsibility Committee, whose task it is to promote the cause through lectures on relevant environmental topics (climate change, environmental justice, etc.) thereby engaging everyone in the firm.
KLA resumed in-person activities in hybrid format as of August 2022 with the inauguration of its new smart workspace that was designed to optimize the use of daylight to reduce electricity consumption. To encourage conscientious disposal and facilitate the task of selective on-site collection by building maintenance services, collection points for recyclable and organic waste are strategically positioned around the office and in sculleries. To discourage the use of paper we have centralized printing with only one printer in use. Moreover, everyone in the office has access to an additional computer screen on their desk.
In 2022 KLA became a partner of the Green Initiative and sponsored the planting of 200 seedlings of native Atlantic Forest trees (one for each employee) in priority conservation areas within the State of São Paulo. As a result, it has been possible to offset approximately 60 tons of carbon, the equivalent of the emissions from our activities in 2022.
