Social

Key topics: Equity, diversity and inclusion; health and wellness.

Birketts is committed to building a supportive and inclusive work environment.

We listen to our colleagues, and value their happiness and wellbeing in all aspects of their lives. We encourage people to be themselves at work and appreciate the unique talents and contribution every individual can bring to the success of the firm, our clients and community.

To help focus and measure our efforts we are addressing two priority areas, equity, diversity, and inclusion; and health and wellness.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

Our EDI objective is to foster an informed and inclusive culture where all our people feel a deep sense of pride and belonging and feel empowered to be themselves. Our People and Culture Committee plays a key role in delivering against this objective and aims to raise awareness, support and affect change, enhance quality and ensure all colleagues are treated, listened, and responded to equitably.  We are keen to focus on increasing the representation of underrepresented or disadvantaged groups.

We have a growing number of Employee Led Networks which provide employees with a platform to connect, share experiences, and advocate for positive change within the firm, including the LGBTQI+ Network, Different Minds Network, Parental Network and Social Mobility Network.

We provide ongoing EDI information, education, and mandatory training for all employees. In additional to ‘formal’ training, we invite colleagues to share their own personal stories via our ‘Moment of Me’ intranet page. Subjects covered to date include Black History Month, A Day in the Life of a Dyslexic, Living with Fibromyalgia and Dealing with Pregnancy Loss. 

We publish an annual diversity report which is available internally and externally; this report includes information concerning other protected characteristics, such as disability, ethnicity, and religion. We also monitor and report our gender pay gap information annually.

Health and Wellness

We prioritise our workforce’s health, safety, and wellbeing. Our strategic objective is to enable and encourage our people to develop, contribute and progress to their fullest potential by providing a healthy environment promoting wellness.

Key Initiatives

Female gender diversity

We have made strong progress against our female gender diversity targets. Our ‘Gender Diversity: The Pathway to Partnership’ workshop, is aimed at empowering female associates in their career progression and has been attended by more than 60 female lawyers. As a result of this and other initiatives, in 2023, 41% of our partnership are female, an increase of 13% since 2020.

Social Mobility

We are committed to supporting the UK ‘Levelling Up’ programme and are developing a bespoke action plan aimed at improving opportunities and social mobility in the East of England and within the broader legal profession.

A few of our offices, notably Ipswich, Cambridge and London are located in areas of severe economic deprivation, and we have implemented several social mobility initiatives that are leading to positive outcomes for our local communities. These initiatives include our partnership with The Careers and Enterprise Company as a ‘Cornerstone Employer’, legal apprenticeships, and inclusion monitoring. As a designated Cornerstone Employer, we collaborate with other employers to develop employability and skills in schools and colleges and act as an ambassador for social mobility, leveraging our network and those of other Cornerstone Employers. 

Additionally, following a successful launch in our Ipswich and Chelmsford offices, we will be rolling out our Social Mobility Insight into Law Experience (SMILE) across all our offices in 2025. It’s a weeklong programme for Year 12 students who are interested in a career in law and meet the PRIME social mobility criteria. Students are buddied with Trainees/NQ Solicitors to gain experience in several seats in addition to workshops relating to legal based tasks and how the business services’ arm of the firm works together with our lawyers, to assist their technical ability and commercial awareness.

We are active participants in Cambridge 2030 which brings public and private sectors together with charity and community interest organisations in collaborative action to bridge gaps in provision and resources, increase local progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and deliver a more equal and inclusive city, where everyone can achieve sustained happiness and wellbeing.

Thrive Programme

In October 2020, we launched the THRIVE health and wellbeing programme, which provides our colleagues with access to various interactive activities, events and resources centred around four crucial areas of positive health and wellbeing: mental health, diet and nutrition, physical health, and sleep. THRIVE was developed with input from Suffolk Mind and continues to be informed by research along with regular input from other experts.  In addition, it is increasingly led by our colleagues’ suggestions and requests.  In October 2022, we appointed a dedicated wellbeing nurse to assist and support our colleagues in these areas.

Our Health and Safety Committee, which comprises management and elected staff representatives and our Health and Safety Policy provide a comprehensive framework for managing health and safety across the firm. The Committee is responsible for discussing health and safety issues, reviewing related procedures, monitoring and reporting on health and safety matters, and keeping abreast of relevant legislation