Thursfields Solicitors’ commitment to diversity and inclusion at every level of the leading Midlands’ law firm has won them national attention.

Managing director Michelle O’Hara and HR director Jade Linton have been spearheading a firm-wide drive to ensure that inclusion is at the heart of everything the firm does.

Mrs O’Hara said: “We are passionate innovators around diversity and inclusion at a regional law firm level.

“Using novel work schemes to give wider access to the profession, becoming a Living Wage Foundation employer, committing to Level-Up pay gap reviews and sharing our lived experiences as legal professionals – we seek to make a difference.”

The firm’s management team began making changes in support of greater diversity and inclusion two years ago.  These included the introduction of a scholarship programme with Aston University Law School which gives students from under-represented groups a “day a week” work experience for two years to support social mobility to the profession.

The firm also introduced a “redacted” application form for trainee recruitment selection, specifically removing the university institution name to minimise bias, and started a reverse mentoring scheme to give the firm’s leadership a fresh and inclusive perspective on leadership, strategy and mindset.  And it recognizes it has much more work to do.

Jade Linton said: “Diversity is a fact – inclusion is a behaviour.

“Inclusion is more than championing so-called ‘minority groups’, it is about bringing everyone into the conversation and fostering genuine understanding.

“Our organisation is learning and growing in confidence, facing the discomfort of awkward conversations around race, gender and sexuality in support of our ‘One Team’ Value.

“Often businesses engage in diversity and inclusion to avoid ‘getting into trouble’, or because it ‘ticks a box’.

“This is not our motivation, and we should say upfront that we are not the finished article. This is a journey, not a destination.”

And the firm’s initiatives have been a big hit with staff throughout the firm who have valued this approach and the firm’s commitment to honest conversations around how to effect change in this arena.

The firm-wide approach has now been recognised with Thursfields being short-listed as a finalist in The Law Society’s Excellence in Law Awards 2021 which will be celebrated in an online ceremony on Thursday 7 October.

Mrs O’Hara said: “We are really pleased to have been selected as finalists and are keen to connect and work with other regional professional service firms who have a similar passion to effect genuine and lasting change in D & I. So please do get in touch.”

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For further information, please contact:

Dani James, Business Development Manager, Thursfields Solicitors

Email: djames@thursfields.co.uk Tel: 01905 677066

Or

ASAP PR – 01608 651203

www.thursfields.co.uk, Twitter – @Thursfields, LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/company/thursfields

Notes to Editors

Thursfields Solicitors is one of the region’s longest established and reputable law firms, with more than 140 staff in five offices across Worcestershire and the West Midlands. Thursfields Solicitors provides a full range of legal services to business and the private individual, including property, family, employment and commercial law as well as probate and litigation. The firm has offices in Worcester, Kidderminster, Halesowen, Solihull and Birmingham.