Political pressure is believed to be the main factor causing a decline in US law firms’ scores in key areas of the Lamp House Strategy’s recent report on responsible business practices.
What is the Lamp House Strategy report?
The Lamp House Strategy Report 2025 assesses firms in the UK and the USA on publicly available information across three categories – people, planet and governance.
Lamp House Strategy Report findings
The 2025 report has identified that UK firms are outperforming their US equivalents in all areas, but particularly with regard to environmental commitments, workplace diversity and social mobility.
The most notable improvements related to efforts from UK law firms such as https://www.forsters.co.uk/ in supporting women’s retention and career progression, setting and monitoring progress towards achieving targets such as female representation at partner level.
Other areas showing significant improvement relate to environmental commitments, with 57% of UK law firms publishing net-zero targets, while many firms have strengthened their governance by establishing responsible business committees and formally reporting on environmental risks.
Conversely, US firms have reduced their visible commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion with declines observed across all categories, believed to be linked to political opposition to DEI initiatives.
Whilst it is heartening to see that almost every London law firm has strengthened its scores across all three aspects of the report, it is disappointing that the US equivalents have obscured information relating to their responsible business commitments, instead choosing to present an outward-facing persona that suggests indifference to these vital areas of legal practice.
