Browne Jacobson, members of Chamber Wales South-East, South West & Mid, are the National Winners of the Equality Trailblazer award at the Chamber Business Awards 2023. 

They are proud to describe themselves as the law firm for positive impact across business and society and have established a national reputation for their commitment to promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the legal profession. 

Their commitment to EDI starts at the very top and in 2019 was the central pillar of their Senior Partner Caroline Green’s manifesto, in successfully becoming the firm’s first female senior partner. They have since committed to and implemented a series of ground-breaking aims and initiatives over the last few years, which includes: 

• Revolutionising their trainee recruitment processes by removing academic barriers and anonymising applications; 
• Focusing their talent outreach work on social mobility ‘cold spots’; 
• Creating dedicated groups within the firm including REACH, PRIDE, Disability and Long-term Conditions, Social Mobility, Gender, and Parents and Working Families;
• Launched FAIRE (Fairer Access Into Real Experience) in 2021 – a ground-breaking programme with the aim of  opening up work experience opportunities and industry insights for young people from socially disadvantaged groups; 
• Joining forces with Forage in 2022 to launch a free online work experience programme, to broaden access for aspiring young lawyers, especially those from lower social economic backgrounds; 
• Launched a mentoring programme in 2022 which is specifically for aspiring Black lawyers; 
• Offering solicitor apprenticeships, a proven route to bring in more diverse talent; 
• Committing to having a minimum of 50% female and 12% UK ethnic minority representation in their Partnership by 2026; 
• Signing up to the Women in Law pledge and the Business in the Community Race at Work charter. Very recently they were also recognised in the Race at Work charter report 2023: 5 years on as one of the best practice firms for the meaningful actions they are taking as part of their commitment to the Race at Work Charter; 
• Part of the Disability Confident scheme and Stonewall Diversity Champions; 
• Joining the Government’s Disability Confident Scheme and partnering with the Business Disability Forum to work towards a ‘Disability Smart’ accreditation; 
• Becoming part of the Stonewall Diversity Champions as part of their ambitions to attract, retain and nurture employees from the LGBTQ+ community. 

  Key Achievements 

• 45% of training offers are now made to candidates previously ineligible to apply, due to their grades; 
• They retained 90% of our newly qualified lawyers, 38% with 2:2s or low A-level grades, demonstrating exceptional talent can be recruited without a 2:1 or ABB at A- Level; 
• Their 2016 junior lawyer intake comprised just 7% Black, Asian or minority ethnic individuals; it is now 45%; 
• They have 35/65 representation within their junior lawyer population of Russell Group vs. non-Russell Group attendees (the average for the top 100 UK law firms is 84% from Russell Group);
• They made employment offers to over 50% of mentees on their Black lawyers mentoring programme; 
• Over 1,100 students enrolled on the Forage programme within three months of its launch. Of these, 53% were Black, Asian or minority ethnic, 77% female and 78% attend non-selective state schools; 
• Their current gender diversity statistics are above the industry average, with 44% of their partners being female; 
• The FAIRE programme has attracted 23,500+ students from 2000+ schools, successfully targeting schools in every social mobility ‘cold spot’. They have also offered 80 fully paid in-person work experience places. Of these, 85% have gone to students from low socio-economic backgrounds. 

What makes them an Equality Trailblazer? 

They are the UK’s leading employer for social mobility (Social Mobility Foundation) – a position they have held for two years and one of only 13 UK businesses invited to join the Social Mobility Commission’s new Employer Advisory Group to drive social mobility. 

They have an aspiration to be the most inclusive and diverse law firm in the UK where everyone can thrive and succeed. They are certainly well on the way!