Linklaters & Alliance has contributed nearly £3m to charity – the largest published single charitable donation by a law firm – as part of a scheme to encourage businesses to donate at least 1% of UK pre-tax profits to charity.
The latest donation of Linklaters, which in the 1990s became the first law firm to join the scheme, is £2.98m.
The firm calculates the sum as more than 1% of the firm’s UK pre-tax profits.
The contribution breaks down into £670,000 cash, free legal advice of £1.5m with the remaining amount counting as free staff time.
The scheme, dubbed the Per Cent Club, was launched in 1986 to encourage businesses to invest in the community with donations based on a percentage of pre-tax global or UK profits – now standing at 1%.
Linklaters became the club’s first law firm member when it joined in the 1990s. The biggest contributors were Lloyds TSB (£40m), Rio Tinto (£28.2m) and BT (£25.7m).
