Walker Morris joins InterLaw Diversity Forum’s inaugural survey

The firm is one of 32 ‘Foundation Law Firm Participants’ that have committed to taking part. The survey aims to become the accepted diversity standard for all UK law firms.

There are also 34 corporate and financial institution clients including HSBC, Google and BT that have become the ‘UK MDS Foundation Client Signatories’.

The UK MDS will reinvent the legal industry’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion by:

• Focusing on reliable and meaningful data
• Encouraging an open dialogue around diversity shortfalls and successes
• Increasing trust and accountability between law firms and their clients

Daniel Winterfeldt MBE QC (Hon), Founder and Chair of the InterLaw Diversity Forum and Managing Director and General Counsel for EMEA & Asia at Jefferies, said:

“The participating law firms are making a solid commitment to increasing transparency around diversity data and opening the door for more authentic dialogue and collaboration between clients and their panel firms about challenges they may face around diversity, inclusion, and culture.”

“As the focus on diversity has grown across the profession, law firms have seen increased interest and scrutiny from clients around their diversity efforts. The detail of the survey allows clients to see beyond basic diversity data into the inclusion and culture of firms, helping them identify where to make targeted interventions to make progress in this space. The Model Diversity Survey requires firms to share data with clients that may be challenging, but I believe this level of openness will provide a baseline from which to build and is crucial to accelerate progress.”

Tracy Foley, Head of HR at Walker Morris added:

“We are proud to be a part of the first InterLaw Diversity Forum’s survey. The UK Model Diversity Survey will give the UK legal market the transparency around the diversity, equality and inclusion challenges faced within the professional services industry.”