Half of senior appointees now women, claims Gowling

International law firm Gowling WLG has announced that women accounted for 50% of partner and director promotions within the firm over the past two years.

This follows last year’s launch of the firm’s three-year strategy – Inclusion 2020 – which aims to increase the female partnership share at the firm. Female partners now make up 20.5% of the total partnership, up from 18% in 2016. Inclusion 2020 aims to increase this to 30% by 2026 and has launched a range of programmes to help achieve this target. Initiatives include gender targets for each level group, mentoring for female directors and greater support for lawyers set to start and return from maternity leave.

Andrew Witts, chairman and diversity and inclusion champion, said: "Inclusion 2020 seeks to embed inclusive practices into our core business processes, such as recruitment, talent management, communications, reward and engagement with clients and suppliers. In addition to providing hands on support and engagement to women and minorities, we are scrutinising the way we work as an operation to ensure we are as inclusive as possible. Whilst we know we still have a long way to go, the first results from our three-year strategy are encouraging."

Inclusion 2020 has seen the firm introduce several initiatives to promote diversity across the working environment, including the introduction of a BAME working group, delivering a mental health leadership programme and launching a network to support those who care for children or relatives.