Diversity

Our graduate recruitment strategy is entirely driven by our need to attract and retain the best people including people of diverse gender, ethnicity, age, religious belief, sexual orientation, physical ability and social class. 

We believe that diversity and inclusion within Herbert Smith are essential to creating an environment in which people with different views, experiences and backgrounds can flourish and work together to provide excellent advice and, when appropriate, innovative and creative solutions, for our clients.

We recognise a diverse and inclusive culture helps retain, develop and attract the very best people to support our values of individuality, which links to Herbert Smith's core values. To this end, we have established five staff network and social groups:

Ethnicity and multiculturalism
This group is lead by our black and minority-ethnic staff and those recruited from overseas. Matters relating to faith also fall within its remit. Its agenda includes seminars, speaker events and graduate recruitment initiatives.

HS Women in Business
With a membership of over 500, this network is open to everyone in the firm. The HS Women in Business committee meets monthly. The network runs around six events each year, including workshops and networking activities. It is important to note that a third of associates promoted to partner in the last three years were women.

LGBT
The group provides formal and informal mentoring and support to LGBT employees and partners. It also develops contacts with clients who are members of the LGBT community. A key objective is to ensure that no direct or indirect discrimination occurs at work.

Work/Life Balance
Work/life balance is an area of diversity and inclusion that inevitably affects all of us at Herbert Smith. Following the success of our ‘Family Week’ initiative in 2006, a Work/Life Balance network was formed. It focuses on a range of issues, including flexible working, care of dependants and stress management.

Sports and Social Committee (SSC)
The SSC encourages staff to get involved in sporting, social and fundraising activities. The SSC is made up of people from across the firm and is open to all. The opportunities are too numerous to list in full, but they include theatre trips, quizzes and team events such as football, sailing, cricket and hockey. The highly popular Christmas quiz, one of many fundraising events, has become something of an institution in recent years.

In the last three years, the SSC has raised nearly £250,000 for its chosen charities. This year the firm has a fundraising partnership with WaterAid, a charity which helps some of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people access clean drinking water.