The Inclusion Group
Our Inclusion Group meet on a bi-monthly basis and includes staff from a range of backgrounds and different job roles. The group is headed by two partners and takes an active role in implementing and monitoring our diversity and inclusion initiatives and in tracking the results achieved.
Progress against ongoing initiatives on a monthly basis to the partnership. There is an annual Diversity plan for the firm and an assigned budget.
Progress against the diversity plan is reported to staff annually at the AGM and all diversity activity is advertised and communicated via regular posts on the firm’s intranet.
The Lyda Network
The Lyda Network is an initiative dedicated to celebrating, and promoting issues surrounding, race and ethnicity.
Named in honour of Lyda Newman, a Black female inventor who patented the first hairbrush with synthetic bristles in 1898 and was part of the women’s rights movement in New York in the early 1900s, the network collaborates with NOTICED to focus on areas including support & wellbeing, recruitment, promotion & retention and best practice.
The Turing Network
The Turing Network is our internal networking forum in which LGBT+ people working at Bristows can share information and receive or provide support. It also offers networking opportunities for members (and also allies) with other LGBT+ networks including Legal Best and the Interlaw Diversity Forum. The Turing network hosts internal events to which all staff are welcome, as well as supporting and attending external events.
The Women’s Network
The Women’s Network was officially launched on International Women’s Day 2020 and, with the support of both our female and male partners, works to drive equity and opportunity for all genders within the workplace. The work at Bristows to empower women in the city started more than 20 years ago, when the firm appointed the first female Joint Managing Partner of a City firm. With more than two thirds of the Bristows workforce identifying as female, this network will work for years to come to progress equality for all in the legal sector and across the city as a whole.
The Families & Carers Network
The Families and Carers Network was launched in 2020 and creates a space for all working parents, guardians and carers to offer and receive support throughout all stages of parenthood, managing caring responsibilities and maintaining a successful career.
Unconscious bias
Bristows holds Unconscious Bias training internally for everyone involved in our recruitment process and for all partners. This allows us to raise awareness, minimise risk, and ensure that our equal opportunities policy is upheld throughout all aspects of recruitment, promotion and work allocation. From 2018 we have extended this training and awareness to encompass the principles of inclusive leadership. All those who interview regularly are trained in fully fair and inclusive recruitment processes.
Widening access
As part of our commitment to the PRIME initiative, each summer we host a work experience programme for A level students who are part of the Social Mobility Foundation. This supports our commitment to widening access to the profession to people from all backgrounds. We also host an annual workshop for sixth form students, to inform them about the full breadth of career opportunities available in the legal sector. This is open on a national basis to students from the state education sector. To read more about these schemes please see our efforts in corporate responsibility.