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Lindsays volunteers embraced the firm’s 200th anniversary charity initiative

Posted: 28th January 2016

At the start of 2015, Lindsays launched a unique charity initiative as part of the firm’s bicentenary celebrations.  Partners and staff were offered the chance to devote 200 hours during the working day to help community groups of their choice.

Alasdair Cummings, Lindsays’ Managing Partner, said: “The objective was simple – to support local community projects by enabling our people to invest time in causes which matter personally to them.”

The enthusiasm and commitment from across the firm surpassed expectations and resulted in 200 hours becoming 350-plus hours. 

Teams worked together to identify local projects and communities they could help, and groups from different offices swapped their business suits for tools, paint brushes and wellingtons, to support a variety of charities.

Activity in Edinburgh included:

  • a team of enthusiastic volunteers who spent a day helping to enhance facilities at The Yard in Edinburgh – tidying the gardens, re-oiling picnic tables and making decked walkways safe by hammering in nails so that the adventure playground was refreshed for children and young people with disabilities to play without feeling different or isolated
  • a bright yellow-clad team of intrepid volunteers raised almost £700 handing out daffodil pins in Edinburgh’s West End for Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal
  • as well as supporting Scottish Association for Mental Health as our corporate charity throughout the year, 11 members of Lindsays Edinburgh staff spent a wintry pre-Christmas  day wreath-making for Redhall Walled Gardens’ Christmas Fair Open Day to raise fund to reduce the stigma and impacts of mental illness
  • Claire Hurst, Company Secretarial Assistant at Lindsays, volunteered at Social Bite in Shadwick Place in Edinburgh to help with their first supper evening for the city’s homeless
  • Kids Love Clothes were delighted to be inundated with 60 black bags worth of age and outfit-sorted, good quality children’s clothes donated by staff across all Lindsays offices to create the stylish gift bags to be presented to local struggling families in Edinburgh
  • Nina Taylor, Family Law Director volunteered as one of the business mentors for The Leadership Factory as part of their training project offered to St Vincent’s Hospice’s management team

Lindsays SAMH Wreath making - Dec 2015 cropped

(Julia Burgham, Private Client Solicitor; Daniel Trail, Corporate Solicitor; Nina Taylor, Family Law Director wreath making)

 

Across Lindsays’ five offices in Scotland, over 350 hours of firm time was invested, over 120 partners and staff got involved, and 28 projects were delivered to support 19 different charities and local community organisations. 

Alasdair Cummings added: “It’s been a pleasure to be able to make a difference with our Lindsays 200 volunteering effort. Given the initiative’s success, we plan to continue our community support into 2016 and beyond.”

Lindsays are also delighted to announce that they have been nominated as finalists at the Scott & Co Legal Awards 2016 for the Community Contribution of the Year which highlights the work undertaken across the firm as part of the Lindsays 200 initiative.  The awards ceremony and dinner will be held on the 24th March at The Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh.

Business Comment

Business Comment is the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s bi-monthly magazine. It provides insight on Edinburgh’s vibrant business community, with features on the city’s key sectors, interviews with leading figures and news on new business developments in the capital.
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