“I think that diversity creates diversity of thought which creates diversity of the way you’re operating, which means more inclusion for everybody. And different and better ways of working together.”
Ann Silla, Senior Legal Counsel, says working with law firms that prioritise diversity and inclusion is important to her. She says although some law firms may see diversity and inclusion as a tick box exercise she thinks many are taking it seriously, especially in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests after the murder of George Floyd in the US, which sparked worldwide conversations.
Catherine McGregor, a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist with the Interlaw Diversity Forum, says the UK Model Diversity survey may be an efficient way for in-house lawyers and law firms to keep track of diversity and inclusion statistics within firms. The survey is a standardised questionnaire that could provide information on the diversity, inclusion and culture of firms.
Catie Sheret, General Counsel at Cambridge University Press, says she signed up to the survey to save time and to be able to easily access the data, which will be visually organised and easy to understand on a Microsoft dashboard.
She says a standardised diversity and inclusion survey will likely be much more efficient for firms as well. As they then don’t have to deal with as many unique diversity statistics requests from their in-house clients.