Hay & Kilner Law Firm is celebrating its roots on its 75th anniversary by planting a long-term legacy in its home city.
The Newcastle-headquartered firm has teamed up with environmental charity Urban Green Newcastle to plant 750 trees in parks and green spaces around the city over the next five years.
The first trees will be planted between November and January in initial locations including Leazes Park, Exhibition Park, Brandling Park and the City Stadium, with different native species being chosen for each location to complement the landscape and the varieties that are already in place.
Members of the Hay & Kilner team will be getting their hands dirty by assisting Urban Green with the planting process.
Founded in 2018, Urban Green Newcastle is responsible for managing and improving the 33 parks that sit within Newcastle City Council’s boundaries, as well as its 61 allotment sites, and is aiming to plant around 5,000 trees across the city by 2030.
Its corporate partnership with Hay & Kilner is the first of its type and the charity is hoping that more Newcastle businesses will follow the firm’s example in supporting the improvement of the city’s green open spaces.
Ali Brown, marketing and communications manager at Urban Green Newcastle, says: “We’re really lucky to have so many wonderful and different green spaces dotted right across the city, and their impact on our lives and well-being has never been more clear than it has been over the last 18 months.
“The partnership we’ve established with Hay & Kilner provides a great template for how we can work with city businesses to everyone’s benefit, and we’re very glad to be helping them celebrate their 75th anniversary in a way that will benefit the city for decades to come.
“We’ve got some ambitious targets to hit by 2030, and we’d love to get more Newcastle firms involved in helping us hit them.”
Established in 1946, Hay & Kilner is one of North East England’s leading independent law firms and provides comprehensive legal advice across every aspect of the law, with a growing presence in the corporate and commercial sector and a particularly strong reputation for its private client work.
Jonathan Waters, managing partner at Hay & Kilner Law Firm, adds: “The practice has been part of Newcastle’s incredible transformation over the last 75 years and we wanted to mark our anniversary by creating a positive legacy for the city that will last for the next 75 years and beyond.
“Working with Urban Green Newcastle provides the perfect way to do this and we’re excited to be leading the way in helping to enhance the green spaces across the city that we all enjoy.
“Getting our staff involved gives us that extra bit of ownership and will hopefully allow them to one day show their children and grandchildren the fully-grown trees that ‘their’ saplings have become.
“Newcastle has been Hay & Kilner’s home from its very first day and we have plans to keep building on everything we’ve achieved over the last 75 years to create an even bigger, better business in the future.”