Norton Rose Fulbright’s (NRF’s) UK arm has reaffirmed its commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) by unveiling a range of enhanced policies and new targets, which for the first time include social mobility.
The move underlines the diverging approaches to D&I being adopted by law firms on either side of the Atlantic, in light of the Trump administration’s hostility towards diversity initiatives.
Next month, paternity leave at NRF will increase from six weeks to 12 weeks at full pay, while in addition to maternity leave, the firm will introduce fully paid neonatal care leave for up to 12 weeks.
NRF will also introduce a cultural and religious leave swap policy in February that enables employees to swap a public holiday for a day of cultural, religious or ethnic significance, and from April, it will offer an emergency child and elder backup care benefit of up to 35 hours per year.
Peter Scott, NRF’s co-global managing partner and managing partner for Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, said the enhanced policies were an “important step forward” in supporting the firm’s people.
“By increasing flexibility and introducing measures that reflect the realities of modern life, we are ensuring our colleagues have the resources and support they need to thrive both professionally and personally,” he said. “This is about listening to our people and evolving in line with societal change – a commitment that sits at the heart of our culture.”
The firm’s new social mobility targets, meanwhile, see it aim to have 25% of its UK population and 25% of its early careers cohort to come from lower socio-economic backgrounds by 2030, as well as half of its early careers cohort to be state school educated.
The firm has also updated its targets for race and ethnicity, with the goal that by 2030, 25% of its UK population and 15% of its UK partnership will be Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME). The firm originally set those targets in 2020 to be met by 2025, but has extended the time frame after narrowly missing them, with BAME lawyers currently making up 12% of its UK partnership and 23% of its UK population.
NRF exceeded its target that by 2025 a quarter of its trainees would be BAME, reporting earlier this year the proportion stood at 43%, and has introduced the target for 30% of its early careers population – which now includes apprentices and business and legal operations graduates as well as trainees – to be BAME by 2030.
It has also extended its target for junior Black professionals from 10% Black trainees by 2030 to 10% Black and Black heritage representation in its early careers population, which again includes apprentices and business and legal operations graduates alongside trainees.
NRF’s decision to publicise its new targets comes at a time when D&I has become a sensitive topic for law firms which operate in the US, given the Trump administration’s hostility towards it.
Numerous leading US firms have changed the messaging on their websites after the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) wrote to 20 top law firms in March requesting detailed information about their hiring practices to ensure they didn’t discriminate against white or male candidates.
The emphasis has shifted away from messaging about diversity towards fair hiring and workplace policies that promote equal opportunities.
NRF’s US website states: “We have implemented numerous programmes, all of which comply with US law, that are designed to create and maintain a workplace environment that fosters respect and open exchange of different ideas where discrimination and bias do not exist.”
It adds: “In light of recent discourse around the terms, ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’, we are making changes to our US-based, people-focused information to refocus our efforts on the substance of the ideals as they are reflected by our programmes and support for our people.”
Meanwhile, NRF’s UK arm is not alone in continuing to report on D&I in the UK. City firm Mishcon de Reya explicitly reaffirmed its commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in its annual review, published in September, while in May the Law Society Gazette reported the results of a survey that asked all the top 25 UK firms by revenue what, if any, changes they had made to their DEI policies in the previous six months.
Of the 14 firms that responded, seven – Eversheds Sutherland, Slaughter and May, Addleshaw Goddard, Osborne Clarke, Taylor Wessing, Fieldfisher and Pinsent Masons alongside NRF – said they had not made any changes in the past six months, nor were they reviewing their policies.
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