Diversity & Inclusion at DWF

Actions, not just words

Our values aren’t just words. We live by them every day and they underpin how we care for people regardless of age, gender, relationship and family status, professional skills or status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, disability, sexuality, religion or belief.

We are committed to a vibrant, energetic and diverse business. We want everyone to reach their full potential and pass that value on to clients, free from discrimination or harassment of any kind.

We encourage and support our people to take ownership and responsibility for our inclusion agenda, ensuring that mutual respect and dignity is seen and valued as the way we do business. It’s about doing what’s right for our people, and making sure that it feels right, but that’s not the end of it. A focus on diversity gives us creative capability in our business. Creativity comes from diversity, not from a conversation with 10 people the same as you – fantastic though they may be!

We can promise you a diverse team of people in our business, reflected at every level. We are working hard to ensure our people are happy to continue to offer insights into their cultures, experiences, knowledge and skills to create relevance and opportunity for the business, now and in the future.

Working with us

On joining DWF you can expect and will recognise a supportive, diverse, well connected and inclusive workplace.

This means that you will be:

• Treated fairly and with respect
• Valued and appreciated for who you are and the work you do
• Confident that you are working in a safe and secure environment
• Helped to improve your skills and abilities to fulfil your potential and enjoy a rewarding and fulfilling career
• Encouraged to take action to make others feel included but challenged if your behaviour fails to live up to our shared values
• Listened to and engaged with honestly at all times
• Encouraged to achieve a decent balance between work and personal commitments
• Empowered to raise concerns about issues you feel are important and confident that they will be properly addressed
• Part of a business that is passionate, authentic and collaborative

And you can expect:

• A supportive, diverse, well connected and inclusive environment
• To be empowered and encouraged to deepen your skills, knowledge and expertise
• A manager who is helpful and enabling
• To be recognised and rewarded for going further and living our values
• Opportunities to apply your strengths and further your career

In 2014, we established our Diversity Steering Group (DSG) to provide strong and visible leadership of our inclusion agenda. Supported by a growing network of diversity champions, the DSG helps to translate our inclusion strategy into visible action to make DWF a great company to work for and with.

We have made fantastic progress recently – ranked 36th in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Top 100 Index in 2017, maintaining our status as a Top 10 employer for Working Families, benchmarking our performance on race and gender, securing a Silver ranking in both, and maintaining our profile as the first law firm in the UK that achieved ClearAssured status in support of disabled talent.

“We aim to make our approach to diversity and inclusion relevant to everyone. We are all different and whoever we are, we all want to come to work, be ourselves, be good at what we do and progress as far as we can without any unnecessary barriers getting in the way. We are committed to ensuring everyone at DWF can feel proud to play their part in making our business a great place to work.”

Seema Bains, Partner & Diversity Champion and Chair of our Diversity Steering Group

“At DWF, we already have a richness of diversity in terms of thought, backgrounds, education, cultures and religious belief. Demographics and societal changes will increase and enrich that diversity. Our approach to diversity is to ensure it is not only present in terms of our policies but visible in practice throughout the firm and something I view as critical to our plans for future growth.”

Andrew Leaitherland Managing Partner & CEO

As you can see, we are more than just committed to ensuring that everyone at DWF feels proud to play their part in making our business a great place to work.