K&L Gates presents our inaugural Modern Slavery Statement (the Statement) prepared pursuant to the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) (the Act) for the 2020 calendar year. The Statement relates to K&L Gates (ABN 81 310 965 026), a mandatory reporting entity under the Act, and its controlled entities.

We are committed to opposing modern slavery in all its forms and acting in an ethical manner with integrity and transparency in all of our business dealings. As part of this commitment, we have prepared this Statement to outline the actions taken by K&L Gates in 2020 to fulfil our strategy to assess, identify, and mitigate the risk of modern slavery in our operations and our supply chains.

With support from specialists and technology providers within the modern slavery space, we undertook a detailed analysis of the risk of modern slavery in our operations and our supply chains. Whilst the results were positive with indications of a low risk of modern slavery, we have taken proactive steps to mitigate and minimise the risk of modern slavery and will continue our efforts to further reduce modern slavery risk in the coming years. 

Despite a rather tumultuous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have upheld our high standards of professionalism, ethical behaviour and integrity in everything we do. This extends not only to providing our clients with an unwavering standard of excellence in legal services, but also to positively contributing to the wellbeing of communities around the world. This Statement covers the initiatives implemented by K&L Gates to reduce the risk of modern slavery occurring as a result of COVID-19 and our actions more broadly. 

K&L Gates is committed to the reduction of modern slavery risk and will continually strive to improve its approach. We will continue to monitor metrics and formulate initiatives to create a holistic approach to conducting business in an ethical manner.