Andrew Leaitherland

The firm has set targets focused on ensuring that a diverse group of people have access to senior management roles - the three most senior career levels, equivalent to partner, director and head of level - within the business.

A third of women on the DWF Group plc board are women, meeting the voluntary target set out in the UK government’s Hampton-Alexander Review in respect of gender balance, and it aims to at least maintain its current gender diversity, having no fewer than three women on the Board.

However, women make up only 27 per cent of DWF’s executive board and other senior leadership positions. The business aims to increase representation on its executive board to a third by 2022, and to 30 per cent in other senior leadership positions.

The business also targets to achieve at least 10 per cent black and minority ethnic representation (BAME) across senior leadership positions, inclusive of the board membership, by 2022. The board also plans to initiate BAME pay gap reporting by the end of 2020.

DWF has announced various initiatives to help achieve the targets, including the appointment of “diversity & inclusion executive sponsors”, including race & ethnicity and gender sponsors, who will provide regular progress updates to the board; the provision of unconscious bias and inclusive leadership training; reverse mentoring; and meaningful engagement with DWF’s affinity networks.

Andrew Leaitherland, group CEO at DWF, said: “At DWF we share a common ambition with other progressive businesses to improve diversity on our main board, executive board and across our wider senior leadership. We want these targets to take us further than ever before.

“The goals are based on our learnings over the past few years and are founded in our belief that inclusion, diversity and equality are fundamental to driving our future success and demonstrate the commitment of our leadership to effect change, making DWF truly open to all.”

Seema Bains, partner and head of the diversity & inclusion leadership group at DWF, said: “Becoming diverse rarely happens by accident. Real diversity and inclusion require change and commitment. We are serious about recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce as well as ensuring our colleagues have access to opportunities to grow and progress.”