Our Diversity
Introduction
Our Diversity
It is important to us to attract and retain the most talented people from a wide range of backgrounds and motivate them to perform at the highest level. Our current UK trainee population represents 47 different universities.
A&Out – our LGBT Network
We have an active worldwide LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) forum group for our staff called A&Out, which was formed towards the end of 2006.
A&Out offers support and networking opportunities to A&O staff, as well as focusing on external client relationships within the LGBT community.
A&Out held a summer party in 2008 to mark the progress made since the group's inception, and to provide an opportunity for members of A&Out to network with contacts from clients' and other law firms' LGBT networks.
So far, 370 clients and staff have attended A&Out receptions in London and New York.
A&Out has been actively participating in the legal sector forum for LGBT groups, InterLaw Diversity Forum, which was created in April 2008. InterLaw is an inter-organisational forum for the LGBT networks in law firms and all personnel (lawyers and non-lawyers) of the legal sector. A&O participates in and regularly hosts the InterLaw Forum meetings which aim to organise a range of events, including panel discussions, seminars, and networking opportunities.
A&O has been a member of Stonewall's Diversity Champions programme since 2006. The Programme is Britain's good practice forum in which employers can work with Stonewall, and each other, to promote (lesbian, gay and bisexual) equality in the workplace. As a Diversity Champion A&O has access to best practice, networking opportunities and research. A&O also participates in the annual Stonewall recruitment guide – Starting Out.
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Parents & Carers at Allen & Overy
We recognise that our people have important responsibilities outside work and it can often be a challenge to juggle the two.
Since 2006 we have introduced a number of initiatives across our international network to help staff manage these responsibiities, including lunchtime parenting seminars, maternity coaching and access to emergency childcare. These initiatives resulted in Allen & Overy receiving an award for our work on supporting working parents in the 2006 FT Innovation Awards, as well as being ranked Best In Sector for Law in a survey on maternity and paternity benefits carried out by The Guardian in August 2007.
Following feedback from staff around the world, we have increased the scope of these initiatives so that people with similar commitments outside work can network with one another - either 'virtually' or in person.
Parents@A&O is an online social networking tool which brings together parents or parents-to-be from across the firm through a virtual network. It is used as a source of information on all aspects of parenting, some of which comes from Allen & Overy or external parenting experts, but the majority of which comes directly from parents - whether it is information on favourite websites for buying children's clothing or finding a children's party entertainer.
In addition to supporting parents, we recognise that it can be challenging to juggle work with caring responsibilities. Carers@A&O is an online site which aims to provide helpful advice, support and useful information for carers within the firm.. We have ran seminars for staff with caring responsibilities and have created the ‘Buddies for Carers@A&O’ scheme which is intended to enable carers to make contact with another carer who has been or is in a similar situation.
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Improving Flexibility
We are continuously looking at ways to improve flexibility around ways of working. We introduced flexible working policies in 2001 and now more than 11 per cent of our employees work part-time, with many more taking the opportunity to work flexibly on a full-time basis including term - time working, annualised days and job sharing.
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Finding Different People
We are committed to broadening access to the legal profession and one of the ways in which we do this is by giving talented people the opportunity and aspiration for a career in law.
In June 2009 Allen & Overy launched the first ever Smart Start Experience. Thought to be the largest programme of its kind undertaken by a law firm, the scheme gives disadvantaged young people from across London an opportunity to gain a valuable insight into the world of business. Over 100 students aged 16-17 took part in the week-long programme of workshops and challenges, devised and delivered by around 150 Allen & Overy volunteers from right across the business in partnership with the Brokerage Citylink. In 2010 we plan to expand the Smart Start Experience to provide a head start in business for more young people who might not otherwise have the opportunity.
We support the Black Lawyers Directory (BLD) to pilot their ‘Today’s Children, Tomorrow’s Lawyers’ project. Three of our lawyers and trainees took part in a vodcast aimed at giving practical advice to students interested in a career in law. For the past two years we have also hosted an open day for one of the schools involved with the project and ran activities from informal discussions with current trainees, to a negotiation game and a talk from the graduate recruitment team on what law firms look for in successful candidates.
A&O are also main sponsors for Legal Launch Pad (LLP), a project primarily targeted at ethnic minority law students and non-law students at university. The aim of this scheme is to help prepare participants for the legal profession by improving skills, providing information and raising aspirations via training workshops, coaching, mentoring and work placements.
We are a founder sponsor of the Pathways to Law programme, which aims to increase the educational opportunities which can lead to a career in law for young people from non-privileged backgrounds. Our involvement includes the provision of a week-long work placement programme at Allen & Overy.
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Are We Making Progress?
We conduct regular surveys to find out what our people think on a range of issues that affect them. 91% of our people are proud to work for A&O. Our website and latest Annual Report contain information on how we are doing in this area and we are committed to being open about our progress. By monitoring our diversity statistics we are able to track our progress and determine where we are having an impact. Follow this link for information on our UK specific diversity metrics.
We see benchmarking against other organisations as a key way to monitor our progress against achieving our diversity and inclusion aims. For example we have participated in the Black Solicitors' Network Diversity League Table since 2006 - in 2009 Allen & Overy jointly headed up the table for City 10 firms.
We have participated in research into women in leadership for the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at the London Business School. We received special mention for good practice in key areas around increasing flexibility and parents in the workplace for our initiatives such as maternity coaching, parenting seminars, career breaks and emergency childcare.
We are members or sponsors of the following organisations and work with them to ensure best practice on diversity: Aurora, Black Lawyers Directory, Blind in Business, Employers Forum on Age, Employers Forum on Disability, EmployAbility, Opportunity Now, Stonewall, Employers for Carers and Working Families.
We won the Law Society Award for Excellence in Equality & Diversity in 2007 for our work on diversity and inclusion.
In January 2008 we won the Lawyer HR Awards 2008 for Most Effective Diversity Programme.
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