Progress being made on diversity targets

Earlier this year, Ogier made a public commitment to reach 30% female leadership by 2025 and 40:40:20 – 40% female, 40% male and 20% either female, male or non-binary – by 2030.

‘We define leadership as partners, Ogier Global directors and business services directors as this is the group which has the most influence over the employment, development and progression of our people,’ said Ogier in a new report, which also voluntarily set out data on the pay gap within the firm.

‘When we set our milestones six months ago, 23% of the leadership were women and we are now at 25%. Milestones alone do not change the lived experiences of our employees and it’s that which ultimately determines the diversity of our future leadership.’

Ogier – which operates in Guernsey and other offshore jurisdictions – also set out steps it was taking to drive progress in diversity and inclusion.

This included ‘empowering its people’ with a D&I strategy sponsored by its global managing partner and supported by a group D&I manager appointed last year.

More than 60 voluntary D&I leaders had formed jurisdictional teams to drive local initiatives and embed inclusive best practice, it said.

The firm sought feedback as well from staff through focus groups and agreed appropriate actions to take forward, alongside analysing its annual D&I survey.

Expanding development opportunities was another action area.

‘Unconscious bias and psychological safety sessions have been a part of our partner conferences since 2019.

‘All employees have undertaken inclusivity at Ogier training and we are continuing to build on our D&I learning series, including sessions open to all on gender and sexuality, black history, allyship and bias.’

Supportive ways of working was another area highlighted by the law firm.

That included trusting people to work remotely when that best suited the individual, the team and clients as well as encouraging staff to flexibly manage their own time in a working week.