Diversity & Inclusion
At Irwin Mitchell, we strive to create a culture where colleagues can thrive, clients can access our services in a way that works for them, and we have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate. Being a diverse and inclusive organisation that focuses on enabling people to thrive is a huge part of that.
Our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive culture
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is integrated into our policies, processes and day-to-day decisions – for our colleagues, clients, and communities alike.
Embedding DE&I across our organisation
We continue to focus on five priority areas:
- Inclusive communities: aligning colleague network groups, volunteering and Early Careers programmes to support under-represented young people
- Client experience: partnering with clients on DE&I initiatives and sharing best practice
- Inclusive culture: fostering an environment where everyone can be themselves, act as allies, and raise concerns safely
- Visible leadership: supporting leaders to embed inclusive behaviours into their work
- Fair processes: ensuring consistency and equity across our systems
We maintain a zero-tolerance culture towards discrimination, bullying, and harassment, and our policies, processes and practices strive to ensure that inclusion is a lived experience for all, regardless of identity.
Making progress through a data led approach
We take a data-driven approach to inclusion, regularly reviewing our diversity metrics and benchmarking against sector standards. As part of this, we’ve implemented targeted interventions to support recruitment, development, and retention of colleagues from underrepresented groups, as well as completing a review of our workplace adjustments process.
We also share our diversity data with organisations such as the Interlaw Diversity Forum as part of the UK Model Diversity Survey and report to the SRA as per compliance regulations.
Recent milestones:
- Achieving Disability Confident Leader (Level 3) status, validated by Business Disability Forum.
- Relaunching our Reciprocal Mentoring Programme, pairing colleagues from underrepresented groups with senior leaders to foster mutual learning and drive change.
- Publishing our Gender and Ethnicity Pay Gap Reports.
Empowering through networks and partnerships
Our seven D&I networks—many founded over 15 years ago—play a vital role in raising awareness, promoting conversation, and guiding policy development. These include:
- IM Able – supporting colleagues who are disabled, neurodivergent and with long-term health conditions
- IM Equal – promoting LGBTQ+ inclusion
- IM Aspiring – supporting social mobility in the legal sector
- IM Families – supporting work-life balance and diverse family structures
- IM Generations – addressing age and generational related inclusion
- IM Powered – supporting gender equity in the workplace
- IM Respect – celebrating ethnicity, faith and culture
Recent examples of collaborative working with our networks include:
- Holding focus groups with colleagues from IM Families and IM Powered to discuss family leave and the return-to-work process, to gather feedback on how the current process was working for colleagues in practice. This has led to awn overhaul of our policy, additional guidance, and a series of steps aimed at supporting colleagues back into the workplace.
- As part of our rollout of Microsoft Copilot, we ran a pilot of the advanced licenses with our IM Able network group to identify the benefits and opportunities for disabled and neurodivergent colleagues. This pilot led to the license being established as a key workplace adjustment option and bespoke training is being developed on the key tools the license offers to support neurodivergent colleagues.
- Through our IM Families network we have partnered with Kids N Clicks, a social impact driven initiative that helps parents, schools, and organisations keep up with the fast-changing digital world children are growing up in. Colleagues at Irwin Mitchell now have access to practical online safety guidance, bespoke webinars, and accessible resources via the Kids N Clicks app and newsletter.
We also collaborate with external partners such as Evenbreak, Inclusive Employers, and Business Disability Forum to ensure our initiatives are expert led.
Celebrating inclusion and culture
Through our Life at Irwin Mitchell campaign, we celebrate the diverse journeys of our colleagues and spotlight initiatives that drive inclusion. Between events, storytelling campaigns and inclusive conversations, we use our platforms to amplify voices and foster allyship across the firm.
Gender Pay Gap Reports
As a business, we are committed to addressing and reducing our gender pay gap further through targeted action and continued assessment. Striving for equity within every aspect of our work is a critical aspect of achieving that ambition.
We have voluntarily reported out ethnicity pay gap for over five years and will begin to report our disability pay gap from 2027.
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