Law Firm To Celebrate LGBT+ Culture And Equality

National law firm Irwin Mitchell will be supporting Pride events across the country this summer, in celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT+) culture.

Colleagues from the legal experts’ Birmingham, London, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield offices will be at Pride events in their respective cities, over the next three months, to join in the celebrations and help push for equality.

The law firm will start its support of Pride in Birmingham on 26 May, followed by Durham on 27 May, London on 7 July, Bristol and Rotherham on 14 July, Newcastle on 22 July, Sheffield on 28 July, Leeds on 5 August, Darlington on 14 August, Tees on 2 September and Sunderland on 23 September.

In an additional show of support for the LGBT+ community, the firm has created a special rainbow flag version of its logo, which will be uploaded to its main Twitter account to mark each Pride event the firm is present at. Colleagues and friends of the firm are also invited to take to Twitter to send messages of support to those at Pride events, tagging @irwinmitchell and using the hashtag, #IMAtPride.

The law firm’s presence at Pride events is a joint venture between Irwin Mitchell’s networking and support group for LGBT+ colleagues, IM Equal, and its family law team, which specialises in legal issues affecting same sex couples and parents.

Luke Daniels, IM Equal’s lead partner based at Irwin Mitchell’s Birmingham office, said:

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“It’s an amazing feeling to be at the parades in our Irwin Mitchell t-shirts supporting the LGBT+ community, when you consider how far we have come as an industry in terms of acceptance and equality in the past 30 years.

“While Irwin Mitchell has an exemplary record on this front and works hard to be inclusive for colleagues and clients, it’s important that we don’t forget that other workplaces still have a way to go. It’s our responsibility as a business to lead by example and we hope our activity will encourage others to follow Irwin Mitchell’s lead.” Luke Daniels - Partner

Irwin Mitchell involvement in this year’s Pride events follows a number of key initiatives the firm has rolled out to ensure they provide an inclusive environment where all clients and colleagues can flourish.

In March this year, the law firm also announced that Stonewall had once again been named as one of the top 25 employers in the legal industry, as well as coming in the top third of the charity’s annual Workplace Equality Index. Stonewall is a charity which offers support to LGBT+ groups, and their index is a benchmarking tool to measure organisations’ efforts to tackle discrimination and create an inclusive workplace for LGBT+ employees.

Colleagues at the firm, including members of the executive board, eagerly embraced the Irwin Mitchell rainbow lanyard campaign which was launched during LGBT History Month, in February this year. The on-going initiative aims to help encourage positive conversations about LGBT+ issues, sign post allies and reinforce Irwin Mitchell’s belief that everyone should feel able to bring the whole of themselves to work.

In November 2017, it launched its first documented transgender policy to help ensure transgender workers can feel included and are supported and protected from discrimination. It also adopted a blind recruitment process for trainees to reduce conscious/unconscious bias during application processes.