Charles Russell Speechlys’ ‘Russell Up’ initiative wins at The Lawyer Awards 2025

Charles Russell Speechlys is delighted to see its Advanced Client Solutions (ACS) and Early Talent teams win the ‘Best Talent Management’ award at The Lawyer Awards 2025. The teams won this prestigious award for implementing and executing the Firm’s ‘Russell Up’ scheme.

Launched in the first half of 2024, Russell Up is a programme designed to create an innovation culture from the ground up. Under the scheme, all trainees and later-year apprentices across the Firm submit, progress and deliver an innovation project in each of their seats, relating to a specific innovation category (including but not limited to: AI, data visualisation, document automation, design thinking, process improvement, app-building etc).

As a direct result of the Russell Up scheme, the Firm has already been able to carry forward nearly 100 new projects and ideas stretching across every one of the Firm’s practice areas. Many of these ideas are solutions that will not only positively impact the Firm and improve its systems and processes, but will also deliver value to clients in the years to come.

The Firm was also ‘Commended’ in the ‘Team of the Year: Legal Transformation’ category.

Joe Cohen, Director of Advanced Client Solutions, comments: 

Russell Up has been a huge success over the past year, and we are delighted to have left last night’s award ceremony with a trophy. Many congratulations to all the other award-winners too!

"Last night’s win is the culmination of months of hard work and collaboration from a number of people across the Firm – not just the ACS and Early Talent teams, but of course the trainees and apprentices themselves, their supervisors and our Firm’s knowledge lawyers. All of these individuals played crucial parts in coming up with the ideas, putting them into practice and ensuring that the scheme was able to deliver on its objectives. Russell Up has received hugely positive feedback from both our own lawyers and many clients, and I’m immensely proud to be part of such a dedicated team.

Karen Stages, Chief People Officer at Charles Russell Speechlys, comments:

We are delighted to have the hard work of our Advanced Client Solutions and Early Talent teams recognised. They have led the charge, demonstrating the benefits of collaboration on this hugely important and successful initiative. We have positive feedback from our trainees and apprentices around the value they get out of the scheme. 

"Everybody is capable of generating fantastic and valuable ideas, right across the Firm, and our junior staff are often some of the most technologically savvy when it comes to themes like innovation and AI. Russell Up is at the heart of innovation at the Firm and provides our people as many opportunities to be creative and share innovation ideas as possible, whilst also learning valuable skills in other areas such as project management, teamwork and collaboration, commercial skills, and presenting.”

The awards ceremony took place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel on 17 June 2025. More information about the awards and the event can be found here.