Diversity networks

It is important to us that Diversity & Inclusion are genuinely a part of the workplace, in our culture and in our cooperation with third parties. Freshfields achieved a top-ten position on the Stonewall Equality Index, a benchmarking tool for ranking the best employers with discrimination-free working environments. Our internal company networks make up an essential part of our Diversity & Inclusion activities.

Halo
Back in 2002, we launched our LGBT+ network “Halo”. In 2006, we signed the Charter of Diversity. Halo promotes the worldwide integration and equality of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual colleagues. In addition to those who identify themselves as living within the LGBT+ community, all those who would like to support the network, our “Halo Champions”, are also invited and welcome to be a part of Halo. Regular meetings provide a platform for exchanging experiences and promoting networking.

Women’s Network and Every Day Gender Equality
Our Women’s Networks are active in all locations and are committed to creating an environment where both women and men are equally able to reach their full potential. In order to achieve this, they organize a variety of different activities and events, working together with clients and external organizations.
Our ‘Every Day Gender Equality (EDGE)’ Commitment is a powerful initiative developed by our Women’s Network to empower people to take very practical, everyday actions to create tangible changes to foster true equality. These include calling out non-inclusive behaviour, ensuring client and team events are gender-inclusive, using gender-neutral language and promoting diversity of thought.

Legal Diversity & Inclusion Alliance (LDIA)
Our Brussels office is also a proud member of the Legal Diversity & Inclusion Alliance, a group of more than 40 law firms in Brussels that commit to build a diverse and inclusive workplace in which everyone benefits from equal treatment and opportunities, irrespective of race, ethnic or social origin, gender or sexual orientation, age, disability, language, religion, political preference or any other grounds of personal discrimination.

Learning & Development

Top talents never stop developing — our tailor-made career development programme will support you in this. Our programmes support you in developing professional excellence, a confident personality and strong management skills. We want to provide you with everything you need for a successful career.
Clearly defined career levels determine the criteria that are decisive for your development at Freshfields. These are differentiated according to your specialist focus and professional experience and you can choose from a wide range of development schemes.
Our range of activities include learning through involvement in top cases, international assignments and training in the six key pillars of Legal Expertise, Professional Development, Business Skills, Language Skills, Diversity Development and Executive Development.
You will have access to a pool of renowned specialists and speakers, including partners from our law firm, keynote speakers from client circles, experienced coaches, and management experts from renowned business schools.

Responsible business

Our advice reflects who we are at Freshfields; our character, our values and our ethos. At the core of our business strategy is our claim to provide our clients with excellent, responsible and sustainable advice.

Our concept of responsible business is reflected throughout our entire organization. From the management culture within our partnership to sustainable action beyond the boundaries of the law firm.
As a responsible company, we conduct business in an ethical, safe and environmentally-sound manner. We also strive to minimize any adverse impacts on our world.

We foster a culture of respect, consideration and courtesy within the company. Externally, we believe it necessary to use our global reach and culture of cooperation, to make a positive contribution to society, through pro bono, community and environmental work. The assistance we provide extends to local associations as well as to some of the world’s largest charities including Save the Children and Amnesty International. Pro bono work allows us to support our clients with their own charitable corporate goals. In order to achieve this, we have extended our business activities to include a strategic framework based on our values and background.

Mental Wellbeing

Freshfields attaches great importance to the mental well-being of our people. We continuously strive to create an environment that is characterized by open communication and an honest approach to mental challenges. Freshfields is driving this conversation at all levels of the company around the world in many ways and has set up various programmes aimed at preventing and/or finding ways to address potential mental stress.

Inclusive culture

To deliver the best experience for our people and the best service to our clients we must recruit from the widest talent pools, seek to ensure that all feel valued in the workplace, and are able to achieve their maximum potential through appropriate development and support. We must do all we can to attract, retain and progress our top talent globally, working together to build inclusive teams.

We have developed a number of initiatives to ensure that we promote an inclusive culture where everyone has the opportunity to progress. Examples of these initiatives are:

• Inclusive Leadership Training – a training program for partners and managers worldwide. It is designed to help leaders understand how to reduce bias in talent decisions and strengthen inclusive leadership skills.
• Reverse Mentoring – a program we launched in January 2019 in partnership with our internal diversity networks. This six-month mentoring program involves younger, versatile colleagues providing support to more senior leaders.