Modern Slavery Act

Blake Morgan LLP provides legal services to clients in the UK and overseas, operating from 6 offices across London, South East England and Wales.  We are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and required to comply with the requirements of the SRA Codes of Conduct.  We strive to achieve the highest professional standards and are obliged to comply with all statutory and regulatory obligations relevant to our business. We work hard to be the firm of choice for our clients and for our employees. We aim to provide excellent conditions of employment, pay and benefits to every employee and to treat all clients, employees, workers and suppliers with respect.

This statement sets out the steps that Blake Morgan LLP has taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking do not occur in our business or in our supply chains.

Assessment of Risk

The nature of our business is such that our Board continues to believe there is a low risk, either within the business or in our supply chains, of potential for involvement in, support for, or complicity in, modern slavery and human trafficking.  The majority of our suppliers are UK-based, established organisations who take a responsible approach to Modern Slavery.

Nevertheless, we continue to insist upon a high level of ethical conduct from all our colleagues, suppliers or other organisation with which we do business.

Although we believe the risk is low, we are not complacent.

Colleagues

We carry out pre-employment checks on all prospective employees and partners through an independent identification and employment verification service. Our process protects the firm from identity fraud while accommodating the expansion of remote and virtual hiring and helps to ensure that employees who join us are not subject to modern slavery. Further checks on current employees are carried out on an ongoing basis with specific emphasis on those in higher risk areas of the business.

Our induction training programme, including both on-line and face to face training, includes specific reference to the risks associated with Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.  Ongoing training is provided to specific colleagues with procurement responsibilities.

Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Policy, Ethics Policy and Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy all make it clear that we are committed to take all reasonable and practical steps to ensure that high standards are implemented throughout the business and with all our suppliers and business partners. These policies are published on our intranet alongside our Whistleblowing Policy.

In addition, our ESG Policy and various HR policies set out those steps we take to ensure, e.g. we pay above the minimum wage (we are recognised as a Living Wage employer), have a progressive EDI policy and enforce its requirements, and implement social mobility measures and engage with organisations promoting social mobility.

Suppliers and Third Parties

Blake Morgan LLP adopts a robust approach to procurement, and our Procurement Policy and processes require us to comply with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 as well as our regulatory, information security and data protection requirements.  This is further underlined in our Ethics Policy (external) which is required to be sent to all prospective suppliers as part of the procurement process.

Our supplier due diligence process includes:

• Risk assessing our suppliers
• Enhanced due diligence for onboarding our tier 1 suppliers
• Audit of key tier 1 suppliers
• A requirement on all tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers to provide confirmation of compliance to the requirements of the Act, and other regulatory and statutory requirements
• A requirement of all suppliers to confirm that they will comply with our Ethics Policy, which includes reference to the Act
• Annual review of tier 1 suppliers

We adopt a zero tolerance approach to any risk of human trafficking in supply chain and our choice of suppliers is affected by the responses given within the supplier due diligence process

We expect our suppliers to conform to International Labour Organisation Standards.

We continue to review and improve our Procurement processes in line with the requirement for continual improvement in our ISO certifications.  As part of that continual improvement process we have recently subscribed to the Risk Ledger platform.  We are currently transferring our Tier 1 suppliers onto that platform with the intention of transferring our Tier 2 suppliers over the course of the next 3 months.

The Risk Ledger platform (https://riskledger.com/ ) allows us to further protect ourselves against risks in our supply chain including risks associated with Modern Slavery.  Suppliers are required to complete a risk assessment with detailed questions around all aspects of their businesses.  The platform provides us with enhanced visibility of our supply chain and makes audit and review of our suppliers easier.  It also automates the audit and updating processes we require our suppliers to adhere to and automatically manages emerging risks.

With this enhanced procurement platform we are better able to review our supply chain and take steps to identify, address and prevent slavery and human trafficking in our operations and supply chain.

Communication and Training

We continue to communicate this statement and our associated policies and procedures to all our staff to ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business. The statement is published both on our intranet (to ensure it is readily available to our employees) and on our website each year.

As above, considerations around the Act are highlighted in our face to face induction training for all new employees and we provide other training to maintain awareness and appropriate due diligence.

Those directly involved in procurement across the firm are required to confirm that they have read and understand our Slavery and Human Trafficking policy and statement so that these professionals understand and are able to address any potential modern slavery risks.  The whole firm are trained at induction and annually thereafter on the important topic of Anti-Bribery and Corruption.

ESG Policy and Group

Modern Slavery considerations form an integral part of our ESG Policy.  Compliance with the obligations under the Modern Slavery Act forms part of our Governance ‘pillar’, as do considerations in relation to our procurement policy and processes generally.  Our Chief Financial and Operations Officer takes responsibility for the pillar.  In addition, our Chair takes responsibility for this annual Statement.  Compliance with these requirements therefore sits at the highest level of our management structure.

Since 2021 we have complied with the requirement to register our organisation on the Modern Slavery Statement registry, which includes the publication of this Statement, so that the steps we take to eliminate modern slavery from our operations and supply chain are apparent. We will continue to comply with this requirement.

Effectiveness Review

This statement has been approved by our Board, on behalf of the Members of the firm, and it relates to the financial year ending 30 April 2025.  The Board review and update this statement on an annual basis and approve all future plans aimed at compliance with the Act.

This statement is published on behalf of Blake Morgan LLP and Blake Morgan Group LLP and Blake Lapthorn.

August 2025

Previous statements:

• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2025 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2024 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2023 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2022 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2021 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2020 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2019 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2018 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2017 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.
• Please click here to view Blake Morgan’s 2016 Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking statement.