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‘We want to be the leading global law firm for diversity and inclusion’
Herbert Smith Freehills has launched a new commitment across its global offices to prioritise disability inclusion, in a move the chief executive said would help the firm drive innovation and collaboration post-pandemic.
Lauren Croft
The global adjustments commitment will focus on the economic contributions made by disabled employees and will build on HSF’s ongoing efforts to prioritise diversity and inclusion, according to firm CEO Justin D’Agostino.
“There are almost 400 million individuals with disabilities across the globe, but if employers fail to create environments conducive to their needs, they risk losing out on vast swathes of untapped talent.
“By recognising the power of diversity and inclusion, we believe we will be in a better position to drive innovation, collaboration and better business decisions – but, above all, by leading for inclusion through our new commitment, we will be enabling our people to be their unique selves every day.”
The commitment combines the importance of championing disability with tangible actions that will improve working conditions for any individual with a disability. According to the firm, it also recognises that individual employees have personalised needs and ensures that tailored adjustments can be made to working environments, whether these are physical or non-physical.
Calvin Shaw, senior associate and co-chair of our Australian Ability Network, said that the commitment from HSF means staff across the world would receive increased support to “embrace their differences”.
“The commitment means we support our people and clients wherever they are in the world in addressing barriers to their participation in the global workforce. As a global firm, we have people and clients who move across borders, and our commitment means they can embrace their differences wherever they are in the world,” he said.
“Certain places in the world are better for disability inclusion than others. This kind of initiative is a way of using the high watermark set by those places as a benchmark for the other places in the hopes it drives a broader change. Ultimately, our clients and our people should not feel constrained to particular locations or career choices. We want to expand the range of possibilities for our people and clients.”
This news follows HSF’s partnerships with Purple Space, Valuable 500 and IncludeAbility – which are part of numerous initiatives within the firm to help drive diversity and inclusion, according to Danielle Kelly, director of culture and inclusion.
“We want to be the leading global law firm for diversity and inclusion. We have a number of networks within the firm that help us to drive diversity and inclusion, including our LGBTI+ network Iris, our gender equity network, our multicultural network and our Ability Network.
“We also have committed to a number of significant initiatives such as our 10 Actions for Change – action areas that we are focused on to improve representation, support and experience for our black, First Nations, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues. In addition, we recently launched eight Drivers for Gender Equity, which is a global framework that brings together existing and new areas of focus for the firm, including targets for the proportion of women in our partnership,” she said.
“In the same way the 10 Actions for Change are helping us to improve ethnic diversity in the firm, our eight Drivers for Gender Equity will help create focus and accountability in our work to improve gender balance in our partnership and across the business.”
Lauren Croft
Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.
