Eversheds Sutherland launches targets to help improve BAME representation

The law firm, which has an office in Leeds, has a target of having at least 14 per cent of staff from a BAME background by 2022, currently that figure stands at 11.85 per cent.

The firm has also pledged to make improvements at partner level. Currently it only has 5.33 per cent of partners in the UK who come from a BAME background.

It has pledged to get this number up to 10 per cent by 2025.

Paul Cotton, senior partner in Leeds, said: “Our goal in Leeds is to improve the pipeline of talent from BAME candidates, across our legal and operations teams, and ensure the right support is in place to help with development and promotion.

“It is widely recognised that BAME candidates face key challenges in terms of opportunity and support to progress in their careers and our new targets will provide a higher level of focus for our firm to achieve better representation across our firm.

“The office has programmes in place to support our firmwide BAME goals, such as targeting ethnic minority groups within universities. We are also working with external specialist organisations, for example, Business in the Community who are committed to positively impacting their communities. We have a commitment to our employees in Leeds to provide an environment that is both supportive and encouraging for everyone.”

Eversheds Sutherland has also committed to voluntarily publishing its ethnicity pay data alongside its gender pay report from 2020.