News
Freshfields named one of Stonewall’s Top Global Employers 2022
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (‘Freshfields’) has been named one of Stonewall’s Top Global Employers for 2022, achieving Silver status as well as a Special Recognition Award to celebrate the firm’s LGBTQ+ pro bono commitments.
The Employers List, which showcases the best international employers for LGBTQ+ professionals, is compiled from submissions made to Stonewall’s Global Workplace Equality Index - a benchmarking tool to enable organisations to create LGBTQ+ inclusive workplaces and navigate the important challenge of upholding inclusive values around the world.
Freshfields is a founding partner of Stonewall’s Global Diversity Champions programme, a best practice forum for global organisations that are committed to LGBTQ+ equality across the world.
Helen Ouseley, Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, said: “We are incredibly proud to be recognised by Stonewall for our pro bono efforts and commitment to LTBTQ+ inclusion. Part of our strategy to continue to drive change has been to set five-year targets, which includes, among others, a LGBTQ+ global partnership target of at least 5% by 2026. We are committed to being an employer of choice for LGBTQ+ people and this recognition is a reflection of the efforts of many colleagues across the firm who work together to embed inclusion in all we do.”
Freshfields has embedded ‘access to justice and access to opportunity’ as part of its Responsible Business strategy, and within its many pro bono commitments the LGBTQ+ community is one of six priority groups. Highlight work includes:
- Advising on the case of two Jamaican citizens who were forced to flee the country after experiencing severe violence and discrimination as a result of their sexual orientation. As the first-ever decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to find that laws criminalising LGBTQ+ people violate international law, this is now a landmark LGBTQ+ human rights decision for the entire Caribbean region;
- Providing legal and strategic support in a high-profile ruling where the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union) held that a parent-child relationship established in one Member State shall be recognised in all other Member States without exceptions, and most importantly, regardless of the Member State’s stance on same-sex marriage.
Further info on Freshfields’ recently published D&I Annual Review 2022 can be found here.