Herbert Smith Freehills and Travers Smith have joined Discuss, a social mobility programme run by the diversity specialists, Rare Recruitment.

Last year marked a record year for law firm partner moves, with 510 commercial law partners moving between firms – a 6% rise on 2022’s figure. 

Global disability network The Valuable 500 has reached its target to get 500 global businesses to add disability inclusion to their business leadership agenda, including several law firms.

New research has revealed that City law firms are hiring at a rapid rate, with a 14% annual rise in vacancies recorded in the capital.

Nineteen leading law firms have signed up to ‘the social mobility pledge’, an initiative aimed at tackling the depressing lack of upward social mobility in British society.

As law students will be keenly aware, January marks the onset of application deadlines for many vacation schemes and work placements.

Some 12 City firms have been named among this year’s top 100 LGBT-friendly employers by leading equality charity Stonewall. 

More than 90% of UK law firms that responded to a survey by accountancy network MHA said they had made a profit since March 2020.

Global law firms Ropes & Gray and Sidley Austin have retained 100% of their trainees.

Nearly 80% of UK employers have a gender pay gap that favours men in 2022-2023.  

Slaughter and May is “delighted” to have partnered with the 93% Club, Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young and JLL to create a new professional network – 93% Professionals – designed to provide a supportive community for state-educated people and address the critical gap in the journey from education to a top career. 

The gender pay gap for partners and employees at Freshfields has reduced to 57.2% according to figures published at the end of March 2020.

The Law Society of England and Wales updated its official guidance on diversity and inclusion language, encouraging the use of alternatives to ‘Dear Sirs’ at the start of legal correspondence – a greeting often used when a recipient’s name is unknown. This use is widely regarded as antiquated, originating from a time when the profession was predominantly male. The Law Society stated: “This gendered greeting perpetuates the assumption that the recipients of correspondence are by default men”.

Fifteen law firms and other legal sector organisations have made this year’s list of the top 100 LGBT-inclusive employers, compiled by charity Stonewall.

Many law firms, in-house legal departments and other organisations including the Government Legal Department have become the founding signatories of the Law Society’s Pro Bono Charter. 

Pinsent Masons has been named the UK’s most inclusive employer by LGBT-rights charity Stonewall, while Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and Baker McKenzie are the other law firms to rank in the top 10 in Stonewall’s top 100 employers index for 2019.