A leading Cornish law firm is lending its support to Cornwall’s social entrepreneurs by arming them with information on employment law, governance and intellectual property.
Stephens Scown LLP is supporting the Cornwall School for Lloyds Bank Social Entrepreneurs Trade Up Programme, which helps social entrepreneurs grow their businesses and be successful.
Corporate partner Laurie Trounce delivered a session on governance and has taken part in a panel to discuss governance models and board management. Jowanna Conboye, an associate in Stephens Scown’s intellectual property & IT team has shared her knowledge of intellectual property. Employment law and HR has also been in the spotlight, thanks to a training session led by partner Verity Slater and HR advisor Mark Roby.
Verity Slater, who is the lead partner for Stephens Scown’s Giving Back corporate social responsibility initiative explains: “We are providing our support on a pro bono basis, as part of our Giving Back initiative. For any business, there are some fundamental legal issues that they need to get to grips with. We hope our training sessions have given the social entrepreneurs who attended an understanding of these crucial issues. As an employee-owned business ourselves, we are very keen to support alternative business models and businesses that are set up to do good in their communities.”
Sally Heard, CEO Cornwall School for Social Entrepreneurs CIC explains: “Our students are all committed to taking their business to the next stage of development; the sessions delivered by Verity and her team at Stephens Scown were extremely valuable, coming at just the right time for our students, enabling them to gain a greater understanding of key legal issues of running a business and embedding this knowledge at an early state.
“The sessions were packed full of invaluable information, delivered in an interactive and accessible way. SSE values the good relationship it has with businesses across Cornwall and this is a perfect example of how we collaborate to share experience and expertise to support our students in the knowledge of the significant impact they have on the social, environmental and economic impact within our communities across the whole of Cornwall and beyond.”
Stephens Scown has appeared in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For list for the last five years. It employs 300 people, including over 50 partners at its offices in Truro, St Austell and Exeter.