The commitment of Reed Smith UK to equal opportunities, diversity and mutual respect is set out in this Policy. Reed Smith, both in the US and the UK, places major importance on these issues and they are a central part of our aim to be a UK law firm “employer of choice” in London and the Midlands.
The values expressed in this Policy are fundamental to the Firm’s internal culture, to our strategy and to our approach to business and how we serve our clients:
- Good team work and inclusiveness, personal development and opportunity, openness in communication, flexibility, and enjoyment at work are key principles at the heart of our working culture - equally they are features we strive for in our working relationships with our clients.
- The international nature of our business and clientele, our deep commitment to personal service (“It’s not just business, It’s personal”) and our emphasis on innovation and creativity, rather than commodity legal work, are similarly underpinned by the diversity and other qualities which this Policy seeks to promote and protect in our people.
As a responsible equal opportunities employer, we appreciate that these values can only be shared and enjoyed in a climate which encourages and enables all staff to participate positively and to the fullest extent possible in the Firm’s activities. This means that standards of behaviour between ourselves and those we come into contact with must be high and based on respect for one another’s differences and contributions. We must all take responsibility for our actions and ensure that our professional and behavioural norms capture and express a core value of mutual respect. Only then can we genuinely provide a platform on which to fairly and consistently promote equal opportunities for all.
Equal Opportunities
The Firm is committed to the principle of equality in recruitment, training, development and treatment of all employees irrespective of their age, race, ethnic or national origin, gender or sexual orientation, religious beliefs or disability.
We believe that diversity enriches our culture and that recruiting, retaining and promoting people from a variety of backgrounds gives us a healthy work environment and strong credentials with our clients and the outside world. Our objective in recruitment is to positively encourage interest from, and to give equal opportunity to, applicants from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Once we have employees from diverse backgrounds within the Firm, we strive through our performance evaluation systems and dynamic training initiatives to ensure that their talents are recognised and developed.
Diversity and Mutual Respect
Everyone working in Reed Smith has something unique to contribute to the culture of the Firm, whether that be in terms of views, race, disability, gender, temperament, educational background, work experience or interests. We encourage a working climate where the unique background of each individual can play a part in shaping the culture of Reed Smith.
The heart of that culture embraces:
Openness
An open culture in which individuals can flourish and which encourages role models to emerge at every level of the Firm. We are receptive to - we want - ideas from partners, associates, support staff and trainees about how we can do things better and be more vibrant and successful. Regular forums such as staff socials, associate and staff lunches, firm management question and answer sessions and monthly newsletters give structure to this openness.
Clients are encouraged to gain insights into our culture and are regularly invited to workshops and client receptions where they can tour our offices and get to know our people.
The office space we occupy has been designed to reflect the importance we attach to transparency, openness and teamwork; offices are glass fronted with doors open, leading to the core open plan areas. This gives us an opportunity to engage with one another and to have critical visibility.
Respect
We respect one another’s differences and contributions. For an open culture to flourish, there need to be rules about how we treat one another. Most of the time, these rules are unspoken and are simply observed, but it helps sometimes to be reminded of them. We ask everyone to show respect in the way that they work and to be a role model, whether that involves:
- Interrupting a colleague or dealing with interruptions: not expressing frustration or impatience; we are all part of a team and depend upon and value each other.
- Care with use of language: in many work contexts bad language is inappropriate; be aware that many people find it offensive.
- Briefing a colleague about a client or project: having regard to different levels of skill and experience and getting the best from each other by treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves.
- Contributing to group meetings (a major part of life in Reed Smith) sensitively and inclusively: encouraging all members to participate and express their views. Group meetings are key forums to demonstrate and share our core values of dignity and respect.
- Keeping punctually to internal appointments: respecting and being considerate of the value of time to us all.
We also expect everyone to show respect in the way that they socialise at work:
- Joke e-mails may cause offence and should not be shared if they could cause the dignity or personal feelings of any person to be compromised.
- The privacy and individual sensitivities of colleagues should be respected at all times, regardless of how well colleagues get on.
Diversity, Openness and Respect in practice
We encourage open dialogue with a view to new opinions and ideas being adopted into firm practices. Some examples of this open culture of encouraging people to contribute ideas on new initiatives in the Firm at work include the following:
- Trainee knowledge bank – as a result of a bright idea from some trainees, who pointed out that research undertaken by trainees was a valuable resource which could be put to wider use, a knowledge bank was created so that trainee contributions could be made available.
- Women’s network – in response to suggestions from female associates, a network for female clients and contacts was set up, with a budget being allocated to profile raising events; this has proved a great success.
- Associates committee – a regular forum encouraging communication between Associates and the Firm’s management on important matters such as their professional development.
Some other indicators of how our values manifest in practice:
- Subject to the needs of our business, we are responsive to exploring flexible working arrangements and will reasonably and fairly consider requests from all individuals at every level and of every status.
- We actively seek out concerns and approach conflict resolution with reason, empathy and an appreciation that we all have our different strengths and weaknesses.
The Future
Going forward, we hope and expect to have an even more diverse profile as a firm. The larger we grow, the more sensitive we need to be to ensuring we maintain, and are constantly in tune with, the core values which support our internal culture and which shape our business strategy.