Briefing 5P webcast: Meeting your clients’ expectations around CSR and diversity and inclusion

In this Briefing 5P session, we talk ‘Meeting your clients’ expectations around CSR and diversity and inclusion’, in partnership with She Breaks The Law – a global community of women change makers who are passionate about the power of innovation and collaboration in the legal sector. You can find the group on LinkedIn here.

We heard from Kim Frampton, Luxembourg senior privacy officer and counsel, Vodafone about some of the trends and challenges around diversity and inclusion in the legal sector from her perspective as a client to law firms and an in-house counsel. Emma Cooke, head of citizenship, Herbert Smith Freehills gave us some case studies about partnerships and planning her firm has done to improve corporate social responsibility engagement across the firm and with clients, and other views on D&I in the sector.

The legal sector has definitely changed over the last few years when it comes to D&I, both Frampton and Cooke agree. What used to be just a policy and a bit of talk, has turned into real engagement and consideration of the impact of diversity in the workplace and on relationships with clients. They even go so far as to say this may impact on winning and losing clients during pitching. Clients are being stricter about how law firms report and promote diversity within their business and how that may impact the working relationship.

And it’s without a doubt that 2020 has proven to be a platform for change for women, LGBT and people of colour – there is still a lot of work to be done, however. Frampton talks about how it’s no longer acceptable to just be ‘not racist’ but how Vodafone is now actively pushing to be firmly anti-racist, and why this message and many others like it are important to stand by.

Climate change is of course not an area to ignore, with new sustainability and carbon neutral targets to consider – this continues to impact your businesses and the people who work for you.

Watch this session back to hear where the pain points and potential solutions might be for your firm.