Evidencing good practice through our Diversity Standard
Simpson Millar LLP is a full-service law firm with ten offices across the UK and a highly diverse client base, including large corporates, SMEs, families and trade union members. Their management team approached us looking to evidence their good practice in equality and diversity across the whole firm. They wanted to send a powerful message about their determination to place diversity and inclusion at the heart of all their business activities.
The first UK law firm to gain the Diversity in Business Accreditation (Excellence).
Our Diversity in Business Accreditation (DiBA, now known as the Diversity Development Standard) process involved an audit of the firm’s equality and corporate social responsibility policies, as well as its entire office manual. Simpson Millar had to provide evidence that it supports equality and diversity through all its procurement policies, recruitment procedures, and staff training and development programmes. By way of an example, of the firm’s 31 partners at the time, 17 were women.
As Practice Manager Rachel Windle put it, “Going through the DiBA Accreditation process with EW Group for Simpson Millar has been a valuable and business changing experience. Simply fantastic.”
“Undergoing the Diversity in Business Accreditation has delivered major benefits, such as improved client satisfaction and employee retention, and a stronger brand which has generated competitive advantage. To say the exercise was worthwhile would be an understatement: it has enabled us to take an uncompromising, but ultimately rewarding look at ourselves, and there is no area of activity that has not directly benefited.”
Peter Watson, Managing Partner at Simpson Millar LLP