Race, Ethnicity, Religion & Belief

Race Action Plan

Shaped by insights from our Religion, Belief & Ethnicity (RBE) Network and external best practice, our Race Action Plan reviews our progress on ethnic diversity and inclusion, and sets out our goals and the practical steps we are taking to achieve them.

As part of this work, we became signatories of the Rare Race Fairness Commitment, which aims to achieve fairness at work for people of all ethnicities, so everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Drawing on Rare’s research, analysis and experience in supporting greater diversity across professions, including the legal sector, the Commitment is helping us identify future actions and build on our existing work with Rare in Early Talent recruitment. This includes use of Rare’s contextual recruitment tool, which helps us understand the wider context of candidates’ achievements and identify exceptional talent.

Since 2020, we have voluntarily published our Ethnicity Pay Report, which can be accessed here.

RBE Network

Our RBE Network promotes DEI by focusing on the interests and experiences of colleagues from all ethnic backgrounds and religious communities. Through information sharing, awareness raising and marking key dates, it helps build understanding and inclusion across the Firm. This includes recognising Black History Month, East & South East Asian Heritage Month, South Asian Heritage Month, Diwali, Easter, Eid and Channukah.

It provides a safe, supportive, and empowering environment in which colleagues from all backgrounds can share and discuss experiences and matters around religion and ethnicity, both in the context of the workplace and more widely. It also welcomes allies.

  
Other initiatives

• Our Partners pledge – demonstrating their personal commitment to our aims to make our workforce more diverse and inclusive.
• Partnership with Aspiring Solicitors helps us attract and recruit talent from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minority talent. A number of colleagues also act as AS Mentors, offering insight and advice to help the AS members improve their career prospects, access training contracts and other opportunities, and ultimately increase diversity in the legal profession.
• RBE Network pioneered the introduction of adding the phonetic spellings of our names to email signatures. Our names are part of our identity and for some, they can often be mispronounced. When someone gets our name wrong or assumes they can shorten or change it to make it easier for them, it can have a negative impact on how included or respected we feel. Having the phonetic spellings of our names visible seeks to help others get it right.
• Reverse mentoring programme to help our Firm to foster an inclusive culture by creating opportunities for people to share different perspectives, lived experiences and knowledge.
• Internal development programmes.