Balance
The Balance network is a forum for all staff managing careers and home lives. The network's goal is to enable discussion, support and the exchange of information and ideas, to achieve a balance of opportunity for all.
This network has hosted events on work-life balance and caring responsibilities. They have made recommendations around agile working arrangements and supported the adoption of the firms agile working policy.
Our Balance network have been delivering a series of talks on navigating the work-life blend, whether you have children, elderly relatives or other commitments and interests outside work. Some examples of panel discussions that Balance has hosted include "how to support neurodivergent children" and "making it work as a working parent".
REACH
The REACH (race, ethnicity and cultural heritage) network is a forum for networking and peer support between ethnic minority staff and allies, which enables the sharing and exchange of information and ideas.
Our REACH network hosts a series of drop-in lunches throughout the year open to the wider REACH network and colleagues who identify as coming from an ethnic minority/mixed background and allies. The REACH network also hosts other lunches regularly to mark cultural and religious events, such as Lunar New Year and Diwali.
We have several affinity groups under REACH, for example our East and South East Asian Affinity Group and various faith community groups.
DAWN
The DAWN network is a forum that focuses on the mental health and wellbeing of everyone at the firm and offers support to staff who have direct experience of, or support others with disabilities, neurodiverse conditions and other long- and short-term conditions.
Each year our DAWN network host events to mark Neurodiversity Week in March and Mental Health Awareness Week in May. Recently we have hosted lunch and learns and panel discussions, including workshops with neurodiversity specialists, Adjust, and a panel event during Mental Health Awareness Week, where our colleagues shared their mental health journeys and the support they received from the firm.
A recent focus for DAWN has been on hidden disabilities. The group held a panel event on living and working effectively with a long-term health condition and hosted a speed networking session focusing on disabilities in partnership with InterLaw.
Pride
The Pride network is a forum for networking and peer support to share LGBTQ+ action and to communicate information to colleagues interested in LGBTQ+ matters.
Each year the network marks LGBTQ+ history month via an online campaign on our intranet. Topics have included celebrating the achievements of LGTBQ+ sportspeople and sharing experiences of "coming out" at work. We also mark Pride month with a firmwide social event.
Our Pride network was recognised as one of the Top 10 in the Network Group Category at the British LGBT Awards 2023. The submission highlighted the great work and events our Pride network delivered over 2022.
We are active members of Stonewall and the InterLaw Diversity Forum.
Other Networks
Legal Women’s Network
As we work towards our 2026 and 2030 partnership targets for gender and ethnicity, we have created the Legal Women’s Network in response to feedback from female associates. The Legal Women’s Network helps build strong working relationships with women across the firm, while also enabling the firm to gain female perspectives when considering the working environment. In addition to regular catch ups network members are invited to attend a series of lunch and learns on topics such as; women’s health and business development.
The Green Network
The Green Network is a network for all staff that care about sustainability and the environment, including actively supporting the aims and objectives of our ambitious new environmental policy. The policy includes commitments covering: our carbon footprint; emissions; waste; recycling; sustainable procurement of goods and services; office greenery and support for the legal sustainability community. We think these commitments represent best practice for the legal sector. A recent example is our partnership with OLIO – a food sharing platform, to ensure that any surplus food (including prepared food) is given to local low-income families, rather than thrown away.
We are members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA), a group of nearly 180 UK law firms committed to improving the sustainability of their operations and working together to improve sustainability within the legal sector as a whole.
Community and Charity Committee
Our Community and Charity Committee is a forum for staff from across the firm supporting our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, legal pro bono clinics and Charity of the Year partnership.
Each year, the committee help manage our annual Charity of the Year application process by reviewing the interested charities and selecting the final shortlist that our colleagues can vote for. The committee also champions our CSR initiatives in various ways, such as sharing fundraising campaigns with their internal networks or using their expertise to help run our pro bono clinics.
Networks Fair
We host a bi-yearly Networks Fair. The fair is an opportunity for people to find out more about our inclusion Networks, the Green network and Community and Charity Committee. Throughout the afternoon, steering group representatives from across all networks and committees share their experiences, explain the support available at the firm and show how people can get involved.
Watch a video of this year’s Networks Fair below.