DIVERSITY DATA REPORT

Transcription

1 DIVERSITY DATA REPORT AUGUST

2 1. OVERVIEW We would like to thank all staff and consultants that completed the voluntary online June 2017 diversity questionnaire. The response rate to the survey was 56% of the entire workforce. As a firm that is regulated by the Solicitor s Regulation Authority, we are regulatory obliged to collect, report and publish data about the diversity make-up of our workforce each time a new set of diversity data is collected. This exercise is presently being undertaken on a bi-annual basis. Duncan Lewis has long been committed to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the practice and is committed to providing services to clients across London and throughout the UK in a manner which embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. The Company is very proud of its extensively diverse workforce. A significant cross section of the company s client base is vulnerable clients, many of which are publicly funded. Duncan Lewis places great value on the unique and varied talents of its people as illustrated in this annual diversity data and we understand that meaningful diversity within the firm contributes directly to excellence in client service. We believe this is achieved by recruiting and retaining diverse talent, understanding and delivering the needs of our clients, and supporting the diverse community which we serve. Our commitment and effort is recognised across industry. Further to the company s substantive expertise being recognised year on year by the Legal 500, Duncan Lewis has been Lexcel accredited since year 2000 and became the first law firm in the UK to be awarded the IIP Gold Standard in Since 2015, Duncan Lewis has been shortlisted twice in the national Law Society Excellence Awards in Diversity and Inclusion and was also awarded the LawWorks Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year Award (London Head Office). Further, Duncan Lewis was recently shortlisted in the 2016 Law Society Excellence Awards in Pro Bono matters. In 2016, Duncan Lewis signed up to be a member of The Law Society Diversity and Inclusion Charter and has recently been awarded Silver Award in terms of our Diversity and Inclusion. 2

3 2. HIGHLIGHT From full personnel data, with 63% of the workforce being female, 14% over the age of 45 years and from our survey, 50% being of diverse ethnicity with the most prominent groups being Asian (29%), Duncan Lewis is clearly a law firm which embraces equality and diversity. Having a diverse workforce with people from different racial, educational and social backgrounds and a diverse age range ensures that as a company we are well placed to understand the needs of a wide range of clients across the UK through our 20 legal practice areas, and ensures we continue to interact with an increasingly broad client base. With 64% of our workforce attending UK state schools and having been the first UK law firm to achieve Investors in People Gold Standard, our diversity ensures that Duncan Lewis is able to recruit and retain staff effectively in an increasingly competitive labour market. The company s diversity transcends throughout the organisation. The company s full board of directors were 56% female and also significantly ethnically diverse with reporting showing that the most prominent ethnic groups to be represented were Asian (41%). Gender Across the entire workforce, our Female/Male proportion count is 63% to 37% respectively. In terms of those that hold a fee earning role, 74% of our admitted staff is female, whilst compared to 72% of in non-admitted fee earning roles. It is reported that there is a 68% to 32% female/male split across our personnel in support staff positions and 50% of those who hold a managerial position are female. Age 49% of our Solicitors and 65% of our Non-admitted Fee Earners were within the age range of 25 years to 34 years. 24% of our entire workforce was between years, with 11% being over the age of 44 years. See Image 1. 3

4 Image 1 Age across entire DL workforce 11% 4%1% 24% 14% 46% SURVEY RESULTS 434 staff members and consultants completed our June 2017 diversity Questionnaire, which makes approximately 56% of our entire workforce (inc. consultants). The following analysis is from data received from the survey alone. As we received data from a wide cross section of our staff, it should still provide an interesting insight into the make-up of Duncan Lewis. From this survey we found: (I) WORKFORCE PERCENTAGE BY VARIOUS CATEGORIES Role Age Gender Ethnicity Education Religion 4

5 (II) ETHNICITY ACROSS DUNCAN LEWIS (INC. CONSULTANTS) BASED ON SURVEY COMPLETED Ethnicity 42% 4% 38% Asian/Asian British Black/Black British Mixed/multiple ethnic groups White 5% 11% Other ethnic group (III) RELIGION OR BELIEF ACROSS DUNCAN LEWIS (INC. CONSULTANTS) BASED ON SURVEY COMPLETED 5

6 (IV) SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND ACROSS DUNCAN LEWIS (INC CONSULTANTS) BASED ON SURVEY COMPLETED School Attended 23% UK state school 13% 64% UK ind/fee paying school School outside the UK 4. LOOKING AHEAD Over the next year, we will continue to embed and promote good practice, integrating diversity and inclusion as an important business and people consideration in the way we work. We will continue to deliver against the diversity and inclusion policy and focus in driving this forward in the next 12 months. To aid this, David Head has been nominated to be the company s Senior Diversity Champion. With the Board s confidence, one of his roles will be to continue the promotion of diversity and inclusion in the practice. NOTE In generating this report, we are satisfied that data has been retrieved, collated and published in a way that does not allow any individuals to be identified. We are satisfied we have published this report in accordance with the Information Commissioner s Office (ICO) published code of practice on publishing anonymous data. 6