Shoosmiths Rated Top Law Firm For Diversity

Tue, 15 Nov 2011

National law firm Shoosmiths has been named the most diverse firm in the UK after coming first in this year's Black Solicitors Network (BSN) Diversity League Table (DLT).

Last year’s top ranked firm, Linklaters, came second in the list of 44 legal firms, with third place going to O’Melveny and Myers.

Now in its sixth year, the DLT is an annual analysis of ethnicity, gender, disability and sexual orientation diversity in legal firms and chambers across different levels of practice; partners, associates and trainees.

Shoosmiths scored an overall diversity quotient of 898 out of a possible 1,000, while Linklaters and O’Melveny and Myers achieved a quotient of 812 and 802 respectively. Bottom of the overall diversity league table was Ward Hadaway with a quotient of 501.

Withers - a new entrant to the DLT- had the highest proportion of female partners with 41.94 per cent, while O’Melveny and Myers remained top in the ethnic minority partners table with 28.57 per cent. The company also reported the highest proportion of disabled employees, with 6.67 per cent of its workforce suffering from a disability.

Dewey and LeBoeuf came top of the table for lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees with 4.63 per cent.

Sarah Gregory, employment partner and diversity chair of Baker aand McKenzie, which was ranked in the top 10 for the third year running, said: "It's encouraging to see that this year's Diversity League Table continues to show that the legal profession as a whole is taking diversity more seriously. However, it is clear that we all still have some way to go."

"We're looking forward to the inclusion of social mobility in next year's table because this is another area that is a particular challenge for law firms and having hard measurements will help."
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