Background

The Belfast office was founded in 2011, and is now the firm’s second largest office, employing nearly 500 people locally. This regional office provided support in legal work as well as core internal business support processes.

What Allen & Overy did

Allen & Overy is committed to demonstrating the values and behaviours of a responsible business, acting a role model and helping to set and exceed standards, by fostering and promoting an inclusive working environment. The Diversity and Inclusion strategy is owned and championed by the law firm’s board and senior management team who are responsible for communication and measurement of goals. The appointment of a Senior Diversity and Inclusion Manager helped to focus and drive the strategy forward alongside its Diversity Advisory Committee.

Diversity and Inclusion is built into Allen & Overy’s brand, further enforcing its deep commitment to its strategy and its accountability to it. In October 2016, Allen & Overy’s Belfast office celebrated diversity in all its forms with a month-long programme of specially-tailored events and seminars. Specifically, the campaign placed a spotlight on key strands of diversity; LGBT, widening access to employment/education, families and carers, gender, and disability/mental health.

The leading law firm also partnered with local schools to broaden access to employment through apprenticeships, workshops and education programmes. The firm has also worked closely with The Rainbow Project and has been externally recognised for its work on the LGBT agenda.

Impact

For more information, email Ruth McVeigh.