2020 winner

A&L Goodbody

This firm introduced a series of initiatives designed to ensure that female talent had an equal opportunity to thrive and progress. The judges were impressed by the holistic approach to the Gender Diversity initiative, which started with extensive research to understand what the key issues were. This included focus groups with key stakeholders across the whole business. Once the initiative was articulated it was led by the leaders of the firm, including the Managing Partner, Chair and other partners, who all took a lead on a work stream and who have endorsed the initiative from the outset. Critically this initiative has already started to demonstrate tangible results. Whilst the ultimate measurable goals of success, ie. a more gender diverse partnership, will take much longer to achieve, the firm has already seen demonstrable progress in the ambition expressed by its female lawyers and female lawyer attrition has already improved by 12 percentage points in 2019.

Danny Wallace, the team at A&L Goodbody and Richard Chaplin (Managing Partners’ Forum)