Gender and ethnicity partnership targets
Year three: May 2023 - May 2024
Partnership Targets Action Plan to 2026 published Launch of Conversations about race programme Diversity partner champions introduced in each practice area Introduction of adjustments, speaking up and fertility policies Launch of Macfarlanes Legal Academy Created “Your Macfarlanes” app Published our first Race Fairness Commitment report
Diversity partner champions delivering action plans for their team Created pronunciation tool on Macfarlanes directory system Launch of Speak-up hub Launch of social mobility scholarship with Brunel university and nationwide bursaries and grants Signatory to Black Talent Charter Introduction of inclusive recruitment policy Introduction of diversity and inclusion champions across business services Expansion of “MentorMacs” reverse mentoring programme
Launch of Conversations about our culture workshops Partnered with Legal CORE to fund Hemisphere Education, a racial literacy programme in UK state schools Launch of Legal Women’s Network Introduced firmwide pop-up career coaching Introduced enhanced Carer’s Policy Introduced new Cappfinity standardised measure for early legal career programmes Launch of East and South East Asian Affinity Group
Year one
2021/22
Year two
2022/23
Year three
2023/24
In May 2021 we launched our Partnership Targets Action Plan which sets out how we plan to improve representation of female and ethnic minority lawyers in our partnership as well as to continue to drive inclusion across the firm. We are now reporting on the actions that are underway three years on. Use the buttons on the left to navigate through the year three update report to see our progress for 2023-2024. We highlight below some of the key actions from each year so far.
View full update report
Overview
Progress the diversity of the partnership
1
Progress diverse recruitment and attraction
2
Ensure equality of opportunity and progression
3
Understand each other
4
Be accountable
5
Actions
Legal and regulatory
Privacy policy
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Action 1 Progress the diversity of the partnership: year three update
Meeting our gender and ethnicity partnership targets:
24% partners are female 3% partners are from an ethnic minority background
Action 2 Progress diverse recruitment and attraction: year three update
Trainee recruitment
Outreach
Lateral recruitment
This year, we delivered 80 outreach/campus events. There has been a significant increase in engagement compared to previous years which is likely driving the increase in applications across our programmes. Our campus strategy encompasses a diverse range of event formats, including in person, virtual and hybrid sessions, ensuring accessibility to all participants.
Since the launch of the Macfarlanes trainee experience app in 2021, 1800 people have downloaded it. The app offers real insights into the day-to-day work of trainee solicitors and a chance to develop analytical, research, and drafting skills. 100% of respondents have agreed they would be more likely to apply for graduate programmes as a result of completing the experience.
Our early legal careers team introduced a new Cappfinity test to our programmes including, our first-year insight scheme, vacation schemes and training scholarship applications. After introducing the test, we received our highest scoring vacation scheme assessments.
Our first cohort of scholars have completed year one of the Macfarlanes training scholarship with Brunel university. The scholars have had the opportunity to assist on live matters through a 6-week summer internship; raise their profile by presenting to partners from Macfarlanes and Brunel professors; and act as an ambassador of the scholarship at Brunel events. In the reporting period alone, our three bursaries have been utilised over 70 times. The accommodation grant has supported 25 students on our early legal career programmes; 27 devices have been sent to students via the technology grant; and 19 students have been helped by the participation grant, meaning they could attend a Macfarlanes event when they would have been working to support themselves financially.
This scholarship has alleviated the financial burdens I faced, allowing me to prioritise my academic performance. I chose to undertake a law degree with the dream of becoming a commercial lawyer and to have been awarded this scholarship so early in my academic journey has instilled me with confidence.
Brunel scholar
We continued to focus on providing developmental experiences for local school students. In the last year, as a member of Legal CORE, we have partnered with race equity experts, Rare, to fund an innovative racial literacy programme (Hemisphere Education) in state schools. Hemisphere has been developed based on extensive research in UK schools, and the effect that racial bias can have on attainment, outcomes and belonging. Hemisphere provides teachers, staff and governors with a toolkit to enable ethnic minority children to flourish. After completing Hemisphere, 90% of staff commit to behaviour change.
This is a phenomenal initiative. Thank you for offering this opportunity to Pinner Wood School, which benefits from a very ethnically diverse pupil body.
PTA member
To mark International Women’s Day 2024, we held a careers fair for female students from socially mobile backgrounds. So that students could chat to people from a range of roles and departments, we had stands for each of our business services departments, as well as stands for lawyers, paralegals and our lawtech team. Around 100 students attended and had the opportunity to learn what it is really like to work in a City law firm.
As part of our outreach, we continued to run our mentoring programme with Inspire (the Education Business Partnership for Newham and Hackney), supporting students at local schools and colleges. School students are paired with mentors from Macfarlanes and work together through a series of structured sessions which aim to develop the skills and qualities needed for the world of work.
The students were wholeheartedly positive about the whole experience. It was clear from the presentations in the final session just how much they developed in such a short space of time.
Teacher on the Inspire programme
We continued to run our Macfarlanes Legal Academy. This programme is aimed at school and college students who are considering a career in law. Through ‘experience weeks’ at the firm, which received positive feedback from our participants, the students learnt about the firm, the wider legal industry and how it operates.
We continue to focus on providing developmental experiences for local school students. In the last year, as a member of Legal CORE, we have partnered with race equity experts, Rare, to fund an innovative racial literacy programme (Hemisphere Education) in state schools. Hemisphere has been developed based on extensive research in UK schools, and the effect that racial bias can have on attainment, outcomes and belonging. Hemisphere provides teachers, staff and governors with a toolkit to understand, safeguard and enable minority ethnic children to flourish. This partnership is benefitting 63 schools, for three years - with potential to impact 50,000+ children: after completing Hemisphere, 90% of staff commit to behaviour change.
As part of our inclusive recruitment policy, we ask our trusted recruitment partners to provide a diverse shortlist of candidates for our roles where possible and we meet annually to discuss the diversity of the candidates they have put forward. During these meetings our recruitment team and director of diversity and inclusion share Macfarlanes’ progress around the firm’s diversity targets and ensure the recruiters have all the information they require when speaking with prospective applicants and remain committed to supporting our goals around inclusive recruitment. Where possible, the team works with agencies who specialise in recruiting candidates from under-represented backgrounds.
To date, 30 recruitment agencies have signed up to our inclusive recruitment policy.
New potential partner roles are subject to a mapping exercise to review the market for all possible candidates. In the last year, one lateral hire partner joined the firm. This partner is from an ethnic minority background.
After meeting, I felt that Macfarlanes are genuinely taking steps to improve diversity in the firm and constantly working on being an inclusive, supportive environment in which to work.
Recruitment agency
Action 3 Ensure equality of opportunity and progression: year three update
We continued to monitor our diversity data to improve retention of our under-represented employees.
This year, we have had a focus on supporting working carers, together with our Balance and DAWN D&I networks. In partnership with our Charity of the Year, Dementia UK, we have delivered a series of informative webinars, providing carers with invaluable advice, and have offered monthly dementia support clinics at our office with a dementia specialist nurse. We also introduced an enhanced Carer’s Policy, increasing our commitment to supporting working carers at the firm. This is statutory legislation from the government, and we have enhanced it by providing one week’s paid leave – the statutory legislation requires one week unpaid. The policy provides support for caring roles which are well established and long-term, and also helps our staff if they are dealing with short-term, emergency or temporary caring responsibilities.
In 2023, the Legal Women’s Network was launched. As we work towards our partnership targets, this informal female-focused network was created in response to feedback from female fee-earners, with the aim to support networking and opportunity to reflect on career progression. It also enables the firm to gain a female perspective when thinking about the working environment.
Our learning and development team introduced pop-up career coaching to complement existing internal coaching provision. L&D offer one-off coaching sessions once a month on a first come, first served basis. Sessions have been offered to everyone across the firm, including fee-earners and business services staff in all roles and at all levels. The sessions are confidential and provide a safe space to discuss all topics about careers from performance to career planning.
This year, we focused on increasing communications about the diversity champions role. This role is mentioned during our new joiner induction and champions contact their teams regularly about various inclusion initiatives and events. The diversity champions also continued reporting to the policy committee on progress.
Action 4 Understand each other: year three update
Our REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) staff network group encourage an environment where the culture and ethnicity of every person can be celebrated, enabling them to flourish and thrive. Each year REACH marks several cultural and religious events, such as Eid, Black History Month, Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas. These events are celebrated with staff from across the firm, sharing the significance of each event over a traditional meal.
In 2023, we launched our first affinity group under our REACH network. The East and South East Asian Affinity Group (ESEA) aims to celebrate, promote and increase understanding of ESEA cultures. So far, ESEA have hosted two cultural drop-in lunches, one to mark the Mid-Autumn festival and another to celebrate Lunar New Year.
The third cohort is taking part in MentorMacs, our reverse mentoring programme where a more junior member of staff mentors a senior leader in their area of lived experience.
Our Conversations about our culture workshops are underway. This series picks up on themes coming out of previous firmwide initiatives – including the 2023 engagement survey, various round tables, and the Conversations about race videos – as we continue to invest in providing a positive and supportive working environment. The workshops are tailored to practice areas and business services departments, to encourage open conversations across, for example, different roles, personality types and generations. Laura Durrant, who facilitated the Conversations about race videos, is delivering the workshops. Our director of risk is covering guidance recently introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which includes speaking up and raising concerns – an important part of an inclusive culture.
Action 5 Be accountable: year three update
We continued to collaborate with clients and other firms during this year:
The firm is provided with regular updates via our internal intranet, Senior Partner updates, Town Hall meetings and the annual firm conference.
We continued working with leading data analytics specialists.
We continued to submit our data annually to the Race Fairness Commitment - this partnership helps us to attract training programme and vacation scheme applications from young people from Black and ethnic minority communities. The RFC commits us to measuring “application to interview” and “interview to offer” rates for different ethnic groups, as well as monitoring how people from different ethnic groups progress through the firm.
During Black History Month 2023, we hosted an event with clients as panellists who shared their experiences as Black professionals working in the City. Legal CORE (Collaboration on Race and Ethnicity) is an initiative launched by Macfarlanes and seven other law firms to help tackle race and ethnicity challenges within the legal sector. We delivered sessions to senior leaders across the legal sector through our membership. One of these sessions focused on practical actions leaders can take to improve race and ethnicity inclusion, using our reverse mentoring programme as a case study.
