Modern slavery statement - McCullough Robertson Lawyers

December 2024

McCullough Robertson does not tolerate modern slavery within its business and supply chains. We are committed to behaving in an ethical manner which upholds integrity and transparency in all our business dealings. In achieving this, we make use of effective and reasonable systems and controls to reduce the risks of modern slavery and to ensure that modern slavery is not taking place within our business or supply chains.

Our modern slavery statement sets out the steps McCullough Robertson takes to prevent, identify and respond to slavery and human trafficking.

Throughout this statement, McCullough Robertson reports on its actions to assess and address modern slavery risks within its operations and supply chains when providing legal services, including supplier due diligence and employee training.

Reporting entity

This Modern Slavery Statement is made pursuant to the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (the Act) by J.R Arklay & Others ABN 42 721 345 951 on behalf of McCullough Robertson. This statement relates to the reporting period 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024 (FY24 Reporting Period).

About our business

McCullough Robertson is a leading independent Australian law firm, predominantly servicing the eastern States and Territories of Australia. We are made up of over 385 lawyers and support staff and 58 partners.

As a leading legal services organisation, McCullough Robertson recognises that the social and environmental performance of our business, our customers and our suppliers plays a significant role in our long-term success. We are committed to understanding the social and environmental consequences of our business.

Our structure

McCullough Robertson adopts a corporate leadership model with senior management responsibility resting with the Executive Committee, Joint Managing Partners, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer.

The Executive Committee is responsible for setting the firm’s strategic direction and reviewing overall performance.

The Joint Managing Partners, Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer are responsible for day to day management of the firm, implementing the firm’s strategic plan and managing financial performance to budget.

Our operations

The activities undertaken by McCullough Robertson are fundamentally the provision of legal and other professional services to clients overwhelmingly in Australia, and to a limited extent globally. Our services are provided by members of the partnership as well as employed lawyers, technology experts and support staff. Our client base is primarily a mixture of public and private sector entities. Our private sector clients range from major Australian and foreign owned corporations to medium size businesses with purely local interests and a limited number of high-net-worth individuals.

Our public sector clients include federal and state government departments, local government, statutory authorities and government business enterprises.

We also run a Community Partnership program (CPP) which is the framework through which we work to facilitate positive social change in identified areas. Our CPP incorporates pro bono and volunteer work, sponsorship, funding and donations. It has four priority areas being sustainability, access to justice and community arts, health and mental health, and inclusion and diversity.

Our CPP provides opportunities for our people to volunteer and fundraise for the charities we have a connection with. We offer these opportunities through LawRight, Refugee and Immigration Legal Services (RAILS) and Redfern Legal Centre amongst others.

Our supply chains

McCullough Robertson’s supply chain includes a range of vendors of goods and services. The goods and services include technology and hardware, facilities and facilities management, utilities, insurance and financial services, office furniture, consumables and fit out, knowledge and subscription services, document storage and archiving, hospitality and catering, mobility and travel, marketing and merchandise, cleaning services, office suppliers of stationery, professional services including legal services, consulting and software.

The majority of goods and services within our supply chain are from Australia and provided by Australian suppliers.

Risks of modern slavery in our operation and supply chains

We have assessed the risks contributing to (Tier Two) and directly linked to (Tier One) modern slavery practices within our business in the FY24 Reporting Period. The levels of risk and types of suppliers we identified in the FY23 Reporting Period remain in our operations in the FY24 Reporting Period.
Whilst we are not in a high-risk sector, many of the risks of modern slavery in our operations are with Tier Two suppliers and there are no risks directly linked to our operations in Tier One. We accept and recognise that there is likely to be some risk of modern slavery in extended supply chains. We have identified the following areas of most risk:

Mindful of the greater risks, we look more closely into the upstream connections of our suppliers in these areas, specifically those in high risk geographical locations.

Actions taken to assess and address modern slavery risks

Organisational commitment

Our Statement of Business Ethics is a commitment to doing business in an ethical, equitable and accountable way consistent with all Australian and international laws, regulations, codes and standards relevant to our work. We engage with suppliers who share and have adopted similar values.

People, inclusion, health and safety

We support responsible labour practices that contribute to the development of fair, safe, supportive and inclusive workplaces. Human rights (such as those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights), must be protected, and we are dedicated to the active identification and management of human rights issues.

We believe that everyone benefits from the creation of inclusive and diverse workplaces, free from bullying, harassment or any discrimination prohibited by law – including discrimination on the basis of gender identity, age, religion, disability, ethnicity, cultural affiliation or sexual orientation.
All people are entitled to fair and appropriate pay, benefits and working conditions. We are committed to encouraging gender equality across our supply chain. We and our business partners must comply with Workplace Gender Equality legislation and have appropriate and supportive processes and policies in place.

In no circumstances will we engage in or facilitate any form of child labour or forced or involuntary labour. We strictly comply with our obligations under Australian Modern Slavery legislation.
We are also committed to maintaining healthy and safe work environments in all our places of work and complying with all relevant health and safety laws.

Procurement and supplier due diligence

Before entering into or renewing a supplier arrangement, the following searches must be undertaken and the risk of doing business with that supplier assessed.

A supplier must not be engaged where the results of the searches demonstrate that they pose an unacceptable level of risk (whether to us, our clients, or the communities in which we live and work, or any risk of modern slavery practices). During the FY24 Reporting Period, we have not identified any suppliers with an unacceptable level of risk.

Supplier due diligence – assessment of risks

Before entering into or renewing a supplier arrangement, we must be reasonably satisfied that the supplier conducts its business in a manner consistent with our Statement of Business Ethics (also known as our Supplier Code of Conduct) and that it has appropriate policies, procedures and controls in place taking into account the:

size of the supplier’s business (in terms of number of employees and annual turnover)
suppliers areas of operation (both geographically and in terms of relevant industries)
nature and value of the good or services to be supplied(with reference to their level of risk in exposure to modern slavery practices)
term of the contract and key provisions within the contract
extent to which there have been any key changes to Australian and international laws, regulations, codes and standards relevant to our work, or to the supplier’s business operations

A supplier must not be engaged where the results of the searches demonstrate that they pose an unacceptable level of risk (whether to us, our clients, or the communities in which we live and work).

To determine whether a supplier conducts its business in a manner consistent with our Statement of Business Ethics, we use an ethical supply chain questionnaire. Included in our Ethical Supply Chain Questionnaire is a range of questions ensuring suppliers comply with non-engagement of child labour, forced labour, bribery, slavery, servitude, debt bondage or deceptive recruiting for labour, non-discrimination, ensuring they adhere with minimum wage requirements as per their local law and employees work reasonable hours.

By implementing the ethical supply chain questionnaires in the FY24 Reporting Period, we were able to further engage with our suppliers and vendors, gaining a better understanding of their practices and challenges, which ultimately assist in understanding any modern slavery risks which may be present. Our supply chain questionnaire also assists in increasing our due diligence conducted on our suppliers.

We are committed to ensuring we encourage gender equality across our supply chains and all procurement must comply with the requirements of our Procurement Statement – inclusion and diversity.
A proposed supplier must not be engaged where it is clear that the supplier does not conduct business in accordance with either our Statement of Business Ethics or our Procurement Statement – inclusion and diversity.

McCullough Robertson also assesses modern slavery risks through regular compliance audits of existing suppliers to assess risks and take action in addressing the impact of these risks, for example, through terminating contracts with existing suppliers and further assessing existing suppliers within similar industries, geographical locations and sectors. In the FY24 Reporting Period, compliance audits found no risks or red flags resulting in no further action being required.

These steps in assessing risk assist McCullough Robertson in tracking and measuring supplier and vendor compliance for future modern slavery risk management.

Supplier due diligence – contract terms and remediation

Where appropriate, and taking into account the Appropriate Factors, we ensure that the supplier arrangement includes agreement by the supplier to comply with any:

policies and procedures (of ours and our clients) that we reasonably believe are relevant to the supplier’s business, as notified by us from time to time;
compliance audit requests by us (for information or other assistance), to allow us to confirm their compliance with our Statement of Business Ethics; and
remediation plans requested by us, to address any actual or potential non-compliances with our Statement of Business Ethics.
Agreement from new suppliers to comply with modern slavery requirements

Remediation

In addition to the remediation plan request, we also promote a culture of ethical compliance within McCullough Robertson by encouraging the raising of concerns and reporting through:

internal grievance resolution procedures;
our Whistleblowing Policy;
our Issues Management Policy; and
anonymous feedback through company surveys, further remediated by the partnership of McCullough Robertson.

Supplier compliance and due diligence

For existing supplier arrangements, we must ensure that we conduct appropriate compliance audits during the term of the contract taking into account the Appropriate Factors and timing of any renewals.
A compliance audit requirement is immediately triggered by any known breach or potential breach of our Statement of Business Ethics by the supplier.

McCullough Robertson undertakes the same actions and processes in assessing and addressing modern slavery practices and risks in their operations.

In the FY25 reporting period, taking into account appropriate factors, we aim to undertake compliance audits of existing supplier arrangements not only when we become aware of a breach or potential breach, but on an annual basis.

Supplier non-compliance

We do not engage suppliers who:

refuse to commit to, or comply with, our requirements – particularly in respect of those principles set out in our Statement of Business Ethics; or
are unable to provide appropriate evidence of steps we request to be undertaken to remediate any non-compliance issues.

Whenever our general due diligence steps or compliance audits indicate non-compliances impacting our ethical supply chain, those non-compliances must be closely assessed by the partner, officer holder, or employees responsible for the relevant supplier arrangement.

Where appropriate, we work with the supplier to develop a remediation plan (at the supplier’s expense) with realistic time frames and with consideration given to Appropriate Factors. We are committed to working with our suppliers to enhance and develop their understanding and support their compliance with our requirements, where possible. We did not experience any non-compliance issues with our suppliers in the FY24 Reporting Period and therefore did not need to develop any remediation plans with any of our suppliers in the FY24 Reporting Period.

Should any significant area of non-compliance be identified, guidance is sought from our Chief Operating Officer, who may direct:

the appropriate form of any remediation to be required of the supplier; or
that the non-compliance is of a nature that requires the termination of our supplier arrangement.

Policies and procedures

Through continuous reviewing and updating of our policies and procedures, we address the risks of modern slavery practices to ensure we provide a fair and safe workplace for our partners, employees and suppliers. These policies include:

Ethics and conflicts
Statement of business ethics
Bribery, corruption and fraud
McCullough Robertson Code of Conduct
Procurement
Modern slavery
Work health and safety, first aid and workplace rehabilitation
Discrimination, harassment and equal opportunity
Whistleblowing

Employee awareness and training

Regular training on modern slavery, procurement, whistleblowing and McCullough Robertson Code of Conduct is provided throughout the firm.

Our training is reviewed annually as is our modern slavery framework.

In the FY24 Reporting Period, we conducted in person training sessions for all new starters to McCullough Robertson and annual refresher training on modern slavery risks and practices, along with the process for reporting, whistleblowing and complying with our code of conduct when working with suppliers and vendors.

It is our objective and aim to provide additional training in future reporting periods across the organisation particularly to employees in the procurement space. These sessions will focus on assessing and reporting of modern slavery risks in practice, including training on our supplier and vendor due diligence process. Training was provided to several members of the procurement team and the aim for the next reporting year is to extend this to the whole procurement team. We are currently assessing how we can implement and improve these additional training sessions in the next reporting period, being FY25.

Additionally, we aim to increase employee awareness on the issue and ensure high reporting standards by referring to the use of an anonymous reporting hotline for employees of McCullough Robertson.

How do we assess the effectiveness of our actions

McCullough Robertson assesses the effectiveness of our actions and monitors our progress for continuous improvement in various ways. This includes:

Reviewing the number of staff completing modern slavery training to assess whether the importance of this issue is appropriately emphasised, understood and channels for raising modern slavery activities are effective
Annually reviewing our modern slavery framework, including our procurement process and our supplier due diligence. Assessing compliance with McCullough Robertson Code of Conduct, policies and modern slavery framework
Maintaining a contracts register which records contract details with our suppliers, including completed ethical supply questionnaires. Delegation of responsibilities to procurement team members to appropriately manage supplier completion of ethical supply questionnaires
Management meetings with suppliers to review non-compliance and suitable remedial plans with such plans including due diligence and mechanisms assisting the supplier in ensuring compliance

We continue to acknowledge our obligations in ensuring adherence with the legislation and assess and action any modern slavery risks or practices with our suppliers and vendors supply chains. We will continue reviewing and updating our risk management mechanisms including policies, procedures and training.

We previously committed to engaging more with suppliers, stakeholder groups and industry bodies. We have increased our contact and monitoring of suppliers’ compliance within the FY24 Reporting Period and will continue to do this in the FY25 Reporting Period.

In addition, as noted above, we intend to increase the number of audits conducted in the next reporting period

Consultation and approval

This statement has been prepared following consultation with McCullough Robertson’s operational leadership team, including Chief Operating Officer, Director – Information Technology, Chief Financial Officer, Director – Knowledge and Legal Excellence, Chief People Officer, Joint Managing Partners and the Business Services Manager, who together oversee the operational and procurement activity across the McCullough Robertson Group. We maintain the same management systems, frameworks, policies and procedures amongst the different entities within the McCullough Robertson Group. The statement is approved by all the Partners of the McCullough Robertson Group and signed by Kristan Conlon, Chair of Partners, on behalf of all partners, on 2 December 2024.

Kristan Conlon | Chair of Partners