It’s integral to our approach, what we call having an unlimited partnership with people. An unlimited approach to developing personal and collaborative relationships is what makes us different. Surveys amongst our team and our clients endorse this. It is a common thread, at the heart of our vision, our business plan and our values.
We know we have lots to do to ‘live’ this vision fully. We have hardwired inclusion and diversity into our business strategy as a result. An unlimited approach to personal relationships for us means having both a truly inclusive culture and diverse teams, in which everyone is equipped to perform at their best. In other words, it is fundamental to our success, to our team’s success and to our client’s success. That’s why we take it personally.
Strong relationships with colleagues & clients are at the heart of everything we do. Have a scroll to learn more about life at Fladgate LLP
As the I&D leader I want to build on the work already made by the firm to be friendly, open, supportive of each other and to value diversity. There is plenty to build on, reflected in the results of our recent staff survey - 89% of us agreed that we can be ourselves at work, and 86% believe that positive progress is being made in creating an inclusive, diverse place to work
We have a mix of different ethnicity and genders on our leadership groups. We are working hard to improve the gender balance of our partner team and in the last 18 months 4 out of 9 people joining the partnership were women.
This means adopting a properly personal approach when connecting with those interested in joining our team including: ensuring fairness in our processes; working with those, like recruiters, who help us in this; a commitment that you will always meet male and female talent in our recruitment interviews; ensuring that our Senior Partner meets every Partner interested in joining us at some point in the recruitment process.
With everyone in our team to ensure they are heard, supported and understood. Encourage everyone to develop their own voice in shaping our culture, their future and our service to clients. That might be working flexibly or that might be a specific career programme - everyone needs different things at different times.
All our people in all roles to achieve their full potential. We provide training, coaching, internal mentors and buddies, whatever works for each individual and their own personal development path.
For everyone including our clients we are striving to:
Ensure that contact with us, including for example at events we organise, is always inclusive and appropriate for all, all preferences will be catered for.
Endeavour to ensure our teams working on different client matters reflect the right balance of gender and ethnicity.
Develop and support our client’s own inclusivity and diversity objectives by running industry specific workshops and seminars together.
Have regular open conversations with clients about progress around inclusion and diversity.
Our work seeks to uphold the ethics and principles of the race equality legislation and engaging with our black and minority ethnic team members. There is an on-going push to improve our ethnicity profile across the firm.The working group, Unify, works to celebrate Fladgate’s diversity of race, religion and ethnicity. Their initial actions include signing Fladgate up to Race Equality Week and instituting a calendar to celebrate cultural and religious events from around the world. Recently, we adopted the Halo Code - championing the rights of colleagues to wear Afro-textured hair with pride and pledging to fight hair discrimination.
Our gender group works to improve the recruitment, retention, and development of our female talent to ensure that women at Fladgate thrive.
As signatories to the Women in the Law pledge, we’re playing our part in transforming the business of law by improving gender balance at all levels of our firm. Events and seminars afford space for women to share their stories and successes and help them gain access to industries where they’re under-represented.
Our gender group also works with our menopause group, which involves both female and male colleagues in learning and supporting colleagues affected by the menopause.
Our ‘Male Champions for Change’ programme provides an opportunity for male colleagues to confront gender norms, hold other men at the firm accountable and encourage them to join in the conversation. The programme works to give all our colleagues equal opportunities to progress in their careers, develop new skills, and be exposed to clients and leadership opportunities.
We have partnered up with Arrowpoint Advisory to host a six-month Women in Private Equity programme (as designed by The Executive Coaching Consultancy). This is aimed at helping participants increase their confidence and motivation in order to accelerate their progress in the private equity and venture capital industry - all whilst creating a network with other professional women in the industry.
This is an ongoing pursuit with lots still to achieve, and so we ask everyone to contribute. Our strategy is modelled around engagement. We seek to understand how people feel, and look for risk in these discussions and not comfort. We reflect on what behaviours, biases and mind-sets need to change, and adapt our training programmes for inclusive behaviour and unconscious bias accordingly.
Volunteers across the firm come together to make up our Inclusion and Diversity task force. Partner Mythily Katsaris leads the team to work on our Inclusion & Diversity Action Plan, which she takes to Fladgate’s Board on a monthly basis.
Teams across the firm, working as part of both strategic initiatives as well as informal networks, collaborate to shape our culture from the ground up. Here are some of their ideas in action:
“I can honestly say this work experience placement was one of the best ones I have attended so far! I was given vital tips for both training and job applications for the future, went on a tour in the Courts of Justice. I was given everyday tasks a solicitor would usually deal with and had a great trainee. Thank you for the experience and allowing me to meet such great people.”
