Everything we do at Nestlé is rooted in our core values of respect: respect for people, respect for the planet, and respect for diversity and difference of thought. Nestlé has one of the most diverse consumer bases of any company, with activities in nearly 200 countries globally. There is no way to understand that consumer base if we do not embrace diversity in our operations, looking at things from different perspectives to get the best outcome possible.
When I joined the executive board in 2019 I was conscious of how seriously the company takes its commitments to D&I and was excited to propel the D&I programme forwards. While I see my role more as a supporting force to the broader company initiatives, there is still a lot that a GC can do to help drive change.
It starts with being purposeful with your own team, asking: Is it diverse enough? Are we building the right culture? Are we benefiting from diverse thought and approaches? How do we know? Are we actively identifying areas where we might be short? If so, how can we fill those, whether through external hiring or searching harder within the organisation?
The freedom to speak up
To get the best out of your people, you need to create an environment where they feel free to speak up. This underpins more than diversity and inclusion. Business methodologies from Lean to Six Sigma teach us that when teams are empowered to speak up, they improve performance; likewise, the ability, freedom and trust to speak up can enable strong safety and compliance cultures. A culture that supports D&I also supports innovation and idea generation and. allows you to examine a problem or opportunity from multiple perspectives and ultimately find the most robust answer.
Leanne Geale | Nestlé
For a legal function, having the freedom to speak up is doubly important. An environment where people feel comfortable to express what they feel is ethical or the right thing to do enables my team to act as a guardian of our core values more effectively. Targets and metrics are important ways to measure progress, but they are not the end goal. Creating a welcoming and open culture should be the first concern of any GC.
I am also a big believer in creating a working environment where everyone can bring their full self to work and perform at their best. Ultimately, strong performance and inclusive, collaborative behaviours are the most valued and valuable to a complex multinational organization.
Not-so-hidden talent
For female lawyers, the advice I commonly give is to just be yourself. Don’t try to fit in a mould. Build on your strengths and use those strengths to create a more inclusive environment. Christie Smith, the former vice president of inclusion and diversity at Apple once said the most important thing you can do to promote diversity is to say hello. That is a very powerful idea. That one simple gesture creates an environment that is more inclusive in an instant.
Even if you are not in a leadership position you can be a leader in everyday circumstances. For example, if you notice there are people who haven’t had a chance to speak, you can create space for them and encourage them to give their views. That way we can all be leaders in creating an inclusive environment.
Beyond that, I am proud to support Nestlé’s goal of having at least 30% women among its top 200 managers by 2022. That is an ambitious goal, but our approach has been to say, “We have almost 300,000 employees globally; with more women at the top, we reinforce our inclusive culture, make Nestlé an even better company and contribute to shaping an equal society. All of this helps drive our business performance.”
When the UK introduced a similar target for female representation on UK company boards, it was a success. I remember one board chair commenting that it’s amazing how many qualified candidates you can find once you look. That is often the case: the talent is there, you just need to change how you are looking for it.
To succeed
The biggest step you can make as in-house counsel is to get out from behind your desk – even if it’s a virtual tour. You need to visit operations, understand the business rationale, and see how things work on the ground. Whether you’re at a mine, at a retail gas station, or in a supermarket. That gives you a more holistic perspective and allows you to contribute more meaningfully, not only in a legal sense but in a broader commercial sense.
On an interpersonal level, it’s about asking yourself the right questions continuously: how you can help someone, how you can create space where people feel free to share their experiences and collaborate, or how you can share your knowledge and experience and open doors for people to progress their careers.
I have always been a strong believer in the value of engaging with communities directly. During my time as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) I made community engagement my mission. HNBA representatives would go into schools in primarily black and brown communities wearing these t-shirts that had “This is what a lawyer looks like” printed on them and the kids would say, “Wait, you’re a lawyer?”. It was awesome to see that we could change their perceptions of what a lawyer looks like and make them realise they can do this job.
When I think back to my own experience of education and entry into law, I can see how useful that sort of awareness would have been. I am always very open about my experiences because I want people who find themselves in a similar situation to know these experiences are not incompatible with a successful career. I went to law school with a baby and graduated top of my class!
I was raised in a predominately Latino community where young women were not necessarily encouraged to pursue an education. I was the first person in my family to graduate high school. I married young and had my first baby when I was in college. I didn’t have any guidance on which college to apply to or any of the important questions students should take for granted: What do you want to pursue? Is this the right school? Is this the best school? Frankly, I based where I was going to study on its proximity to my boyfriend.
At college, and especially at law school, it was very, very lonely. I didn’t feel like I belonged. If you are from a background where higher education is not the norm you carry a kind of imposter syndrome around with you. Even now, after a successful 20-year career that sense of being an outsider occasionally lurks back in. Every so often I will hear a comment and think, “oh my gosh, maybe this was all just a lucky streak”. Rationally, I know that is not true, but it is something I know a lot of minorities have to deal with in the workplace, and it was certainly something I had to deal with in my early career. I was surrounded by people who did not look or sound like me, and who very likely did not have the same experiences as me.
I was a Hispanic woman, married with a kid; I just didn’t fit the mould of a successful lawyer. At law school, I was counselled by the career service team not to mention that I had a child when applying for jobs. I had to pretend to be someone I was not, and went through the first few years of my practice as a lawyer almost as two separate people living parallel lives. But I’m not someone who ever backs down. I used negative comments and prejudices to fuel me. Besides, as a young mother there was more at stake than just myself. The ability to fail was not n option.
More than a ‘diversity hire’
Majority communities can have a hard time understanding the sense of isolation or otherness that comes with being a minority in the workplace. Any complaints are seen as an attack on affirmative action programmes and minority-inclusive hiring practices. This is missing the point. As diverse candidate you naturally approach an interview thinking, “Am I here as a potential diversity hire? Does the company want me because of all the things I’ve done, or does it want me because I am a woman, and especially a woman of colour?” This is not a case of being paranoid, ot is just reporting the facts. As any minority will know, people actually do say these things.
A few years ago, I was at a dinner with a law firm and we got to talking about a particular judge who was African American. One of the partners dismissed this judge’s experience on the grounds that he was, “an affirmative action hire”. He was discussing a federal judge who went to a phenomenal school, yet felt comfortable using that language.
A couple of years later we had a partnership retreat that included a D&I component. When it came to questions from the audience, I stood up and told this story. The lawyer who had made those comments was in the audience and knew exactly what I was talking about. I wasn’t going to publicly name and shame him, but it was my way of demonstrating the point that someone will sit through a discussion of D&I without being aware of this hypocrisy, or of how outrageous and damaging these beliefs are. This sort of prejudice in the legal profession is far more widespread that is commonly acknowledged.
Leading by example
If you want to judge whether a company is truly diverse, look at the makeup of its wider management. Don’t just look at the diversity and inclusion committee, which is where you tend to find diverse people – look at who the decision-makers are and whether they are diverse. Then ask, what does that company consider a diverse team looks like? Is it just having a woman on the board, or is it a real mix of people who have got there because the company is prepared to promote talent wherever it sees it?
In that sense, it is incredibly refreshing to work at a global company like Lenovo, where I deal with a diverse set of people from all over the world. We have a CEO who is compassionate and passionate about all issues that concern underrepresented or disadvantaged people. At the start of the pandemic, he put his own personal money and effort into sending laptops to poor communities throughout China, with a personal letter from him to the recipients.
When Black Lives Matter took off, we held some really honest townhall meetings to discuss how staff felt about the movement and what more could be done to improve the workplace. We held roundtable discussions where people were free to ask bold questions about how we were going to deal with the issues BLM raised, or to make sure that all our people felt included. Not only that, but the company matches our financial contributions to social causes one to five, which made a big difference.
That commitment to D&I bleeds through everything at Lenovo. I don’t feel like my gender or my ethnicity has any bearing on how people approach me as a lawyer. Corporations are doing so much better with diversity and inclusion than law firms in the US. Law firms could really learn a lot from their clients.
The 0.2%
Of course, counsel we can say that law firms need to change until they’re blue in the face. Let’s focus on actions rather than words. In a role where you are looking at candidates, dealing with vendors, or spending money, you have the power to effect the kind of change you are preaching. Leaders in any senior-level executive position have the power to move the dial, and there is a duty to be very intentional when it comes to diversity.
I am proud to say that my entire team is diverse. I require all my outside counsel to have a diverse team. We request biannual reports giving the various demographics within the team, and more importantly we check what role each lawyer will play on a particular piece of work. Diverse talent needs to have an actual, critical, material role in the work, it can’t just be somebody who is there for optics.
One thing that I absolutely know for sure is that until we can give equal access to underrepresented communities, and particularly to black and brown communities, we are going to find ourselves dealing with these issues in the law continuously.
The legal profession remains of the least diverse professions in the US. Just 5% of lawyers are of Hispanic heritage, even though such people make up about 18% of the population. In the IP space it is even worse. Latinas make up less than 0.2% of IP lawyers. Just think about that number for a second. A community makes up about 18% of the US population accounts for less than 0.2% of IP lawyers. That level of disparity is not something that will change without intentional efforts on the part of GCs and senior counsel.
Of course, we need to think about what constitutes “diversity”, that diversity programmes are truly inclusive and not alienating any group. I have thought about this many times. Should we make diversity an economic issue, for example? Communities of colour are disproportionately poorer, but many other groups face socio-economic exclusion. The reality is this: white privilege is still white privilege. We need to address the disadvantages inherent to being a person of colour in the United States before we can look at bigger issues.
It is also a problem we can solve. Black and brown communities are abysmally underrepresented in the legal profession. As GCs we may not be able to change everything, but we can change that.
For GCs, the very first question you need to ask yourself is how much of a diverse and inclusive mindset you have as a leader. Only then can you successfully analyse how diverse and inclusive your current team is, both with respect to hard numbers but also in terms of its culture.
Luckily, I work for a company that is perhaps one of the most diverse in the world. This helps tremendously when looking at the composition of teams, but most importantly at the culture of the organization.
Diversity and Inclusion brings more value than most people think. Companies with successful D&I cultures grow faster, stronger and more sustainably. D&I attracts the best talent, it provides a much stronger management base that takes into account a more robust view of business, society, customers and consumers, and it allows you to contribute to positive change in society. At the end of the day, we are here to leave a better place for the next generation. Embracing diversity and being inclusive will certainly contribute to that.
Luis-Xavier Hernández | Unilever
Deploying D&I policies on a global scale is one of the biggest challenges for any type of global corporation, particularly one with a footprint like Unilever’s. We have to understand that a diversity and inclusion agenda means respecting different cultures in different parts of the world. It is hard to come up with a rigid approach to certain metrics that may have varying degrees of relevancy in different parts of the world. You have to really understand and cater for that, because the main reason for having a diversity and inclusion agenda is to make sure that every individual in the company has the exact same opportunity to succeed as anyone else. To do that, you need to cater for realities and cultures in different places.
From my perspective, values rest on universal principles that should apply everywhere, like treating everyone in the organization with respect, providing equal opportunities no matter the gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation or any personal beliefs. Living and breathing these values makes us richer, stronger, and more united in every corner of our organization.
While it could be challenging to drive consistent metrics across regions with their own cultural characteristics and idiosyncrasies, I think the best way to reconcile that tension is to ensure that values are never compromised, no matter the circumstances. That to me is a must and reflects the culture of your organization.
Better business in the digital sphere
As head of Unilever’s legal team overseeing data privacy and digital, I frequently find myself balancing the value of certain data related propositions with the complexity and cost required to execute them in a legally compliant manner. It always comes down to finding that reasonable balance. What I have found helpful is to start our assessments by asking the question ‘what is the purpose of collecting personal data, in this case related to diversity and inclusion?’ This data point will lead to other relevant questions about proportionality and transparency but understanding the purpose works an effective gate and it’s definitely a strong start.
Most large organization have stats and metrics to measure their diversity and inclusion efforts, but few people realize how complicated and sensitive it is to process such information. When it comes to diversity and inclusion, most personal data is considered sensitive personal information, and for a good reason. The potential harm to the individual is heightened compared to other types of personal data, and as such organizations need to think very carefully about how such data is collected, used, and protected. The stakes are high.
From a data privacy perspective, the rules governing what sort of data organizations are permitted to hold will only get tighter. The entire ecosystem, from individuals to regulators and lawmakers, is taking more interest in use and misuse of personal data. That means we need to be ahead of the game and think through how and why we collect information. But there is an even more important question to be considered. The question of ethics.
Transitioning from what is legally required to what is ethically expected is a challenging but powerful journey that I think all players in this space should consider. It’s not only the right thing to do but also what most stakeholders would expect in these times. .
Ultimately, we want to be compliant with data protection laws while helping advance our D&I agenda, do the right thing for our employees, for the company, and for the whole ecosystem of partners, suppliers, customers, and consumers. I want to make sure that any information we collect is strictly necessary to achieve the ultimate purpose of advancing our D&I agenda and do something that is aligned with our corporate values and high ethical standards, while protecting individual privacy rights.
I think data and digital professionals will continue to face the challenge of finding the right balance between supporting legitimate business initiatives and remaining in compliance with the spectrum of regulations on a country-by-country basis – including sometimes outdated regulations.
Unilever is one of the leaders in the brand safety movement, which concerns itself with ensuring that our brands are presented to consumers in safe environments and of course a key part of this effort is holding media outlets and agencies accountable for that. It’s not as simple as it sounds though, mainly because the digital space is formed of so many different players that it has become a complex, non-linear ecosystem. However, I believe that all players but in particular the most influential ones have a degree of social responsibility to improve the digital ecosystem in the interest of millions of viewers who consume media and as a consequence advertising.
I have the privilege to serve as a board member of the Better Business Bureau National Programs Inc, a globally recognized organization that fosters consumer trust in advertising which is the reference point in the United States with regards to self-regulation and many other globally relevant programs. The BBB National Programs is a great example of an organization that really has the consumer interests at its heart. It truly stands for transparency and fairness in advertising. As such there is very much similarity in values between Unilever and the BBB National Programs and that’s why I accepted the board role without hesitation.
It has been a great experience being part of BBB NP’s board, it has given me an invaluable platform from which I can contribute my experience and passion for certain topics and perhaps shape in some way or form the strategic agenda of the organization. It has also given me an external perspective of the market place, consumers, and companies in many different industries. As GC, I have learned that having an external perspective of the world and the industry where your company operates is an invaluable enabler of a diverse vision. It also energizes me to continue to drive positive change.
I was born in Israel and my family moved to the United States when I was seven. I still have vivid memories of running in and out of bomb shelters during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. My father was drafted into the Israeli army and we didn’t see him for several months. My mom was pregnant with my brother and we moved in with my grandparents. Luckily, my dad survived the war and came home to us. My childhood was non-traditional in this way, and a few others, but in most other respects, it was a very happy one.
We came to the U.S. because my dad had the quintessential American dream. He used to draw outlines of America in the sand when we went to the beach in Israel and he was passionate in his belief that moving here would give him and his family a better chance at success.
We ended up in Skokie, Illinois, where I got my first taste of snow in the form of the blizzard of ’76. I didn’t know any English but picked it up and was fluent within a year. Though so many things were new and I often felt different in this new culture I was experiencing for the first time, I recall making friends and feeling accepted.
Anat Hakim | Eli Lilly
My parents worked their way up from the bottom. At first, we would spend many Saturdays picking through people’s garbage, for toys, furniture, whatever we could find that might be useful. For me, as a kid, it was fun and we often did it with one or two other families. I remember one time finding a game that someone had thrown out called “Don’t Spill the Beans,” which, to this day, I remember as one of my best Saturday finds! We moved on from that life, when getting 50 cents to buy a treat from the neighbourhood ice cream truck was the highlight of my week, to a life that was ultimately more middle- to upper-middle-class, all through my parents’ sheer determination and hard work. That experience really set the stage for my own philosophy and approach to life.
Hard work and great mentors
When it comes to diversity and inclusion, one of the things that stands out in my mind is my parents. I was the only girl in the family, the oldest, with two younger brothers. My parents raised me to dream big and without any limitations or barriers. It was all wrapped up in the American dream: you’re here, you’ve got these talents, go for it. It never occurred to me that gender would or could be a barrier, so I had a lot of ambition and big aspirations.
While that is a great philosophy to instil in a young person, it does not mean there are no barriers. In my 27 years as a lawyer I don’t recall experiencing overt discrimination, but I always felt the need to be the hardest worker in the room to stand out.
Hard work alone isn’t enough, though, and I’ve also been really fortunate to find wonderful mentors—people like Arne Sorenson, now CEO of Marriott, and Sharon Barner, who is now general counsel of Cummins Inc. Sharon is one of those exceptional mentors who always supported and mentored women, and still does to this day. She was intentional about it; that, I learned, was key.
They and others at every firm and company where I’ve worked pushed me or pulled me along. And I know they helped me overcome bias of which I wasn’t always aware. Fast-forward to today, when, as a leader, I recognize the need to be intentional about helping and supporting others in their career journeys.
When you’re facing unconscious or conscious bias, hard work alone is not enough; you need people who are there advocating for you, helping you navigate. Leaders must make sure to be intentionally mindful of helping, supporting and recognising what the various people in your community and in your department need. I hope I can play the role for them that my mentors played for me—whether the people I’m advocating for are aware of my support or not.
Lessons in leadership
I like to read leadership and management books for fun; the subject has always fascinated me. Even so, I didn’t realize the true meaning of leadership until I went in-house. When I joined Abbott Laboratories in 2010, I was responsible for leading the patent litigation group globally. That was the first time I had a global team and really learned how to guide and empower others in their work. For me, a lot of what I did was (and still is) guided by instinct, but I also learned to develop and question my instincts by studying, listening to others, and watching what other leaders do well.
The most valuable skill of leadership that I learned is empathy. You don’t need power to be a leader. What marks you out as a strong leader is getting the right people in place who you trust and then handing power to them. That’s when you get incredible results.
We have an incredibly diverse legal department at Lilly, and that type of empowering leadership tends to bring out the best in a diverse team. We encourage each person to bring their own experiences and skills to the table.
All the organizations where I’ve worked in-house, from Abbott to WellCare and now Lilly, have had strong representation among women and minority groups. It is something to be celebrated and it’s a continuous journey to progress on this front.
Even so, I have been struck by the exceptional and intentional commitment to diversity at Lilly, and the level of determination and focus starting at the very top of the organization. It even struck me during my interviews for this job that people talked about bringing your whole self to work. That is something I have continued to strive for in the legal team.
Psychological safety
One of the first things I ask myself when I go to work somewhere is, ‘Is there a sense of psychological safety in this group?’ I am a big believer in creating a feeling of psychological safety within my teams. When you do that, people can be themselves—not only who they are now but who they’re becoming. They can disagree openly, and that leads to sharing. To me, psychological safety is reflected in a team that can openly disagree. That helps foster an environment where inclusion is a natural by-product because different viewpoints, experiences, and approaches are openly expressed. There is diversity of people’s experiences, people’s thoughts—and an atmosphere where everyone feels they can speak up. That’s how you get the best ideas and, ultimately, the best decisions.
When I reflect on what diversity brings to the table, I realize it’s about fostering a sense of inclusion. If you’re mindful of the fact that there is discrimination, that there is bias, and you’ve had to overcome it, you understand that you need to take concrete steps to build an inclusive culture, one that welcomes and supports differences. The result is a more creative, supportive and fun place to work.
Turning empathy into action
It’s been shown that companies with gender-diverse leadership deliver, on average, better financial performance than those with low numbers of women in senior positions. Lilly has been successful in boosting the number of women in leadership roles. Nearly half of our CEO’s leadership team is female. Globally, women account for 50% of those in management roles globally, and our U.S. workforce is 29% minority group members.
Much of this progress stems from 2015, when Lilly began undertaking Employee Journeys—deep research into the lived experience of populations of Lilly employees. It involves a level of honesty and transparency you don’t often see in a major corporation.
We started with the Women’s Journey and have since used that experience and success to understand enablers and barriers for African Americans, Asians, Latinos and most recently LGBTQ employees. We’ve turned this understanding and empathy into action, so the organization can address unconscious biases to enable more career development opportunities for everyone. We have learned so much. We are just finishing up the fifth journey, for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. This work has made a tremendous difference in our culture.
The Journeys represent a key element of Lilly’s approach to diversity and inclusion: We treat it as a business challenge. Of course, D&I is about fairness, justice and so much more, but we don’t treat it as a “special case.”. We treat it as a business challenge that is as important as any other challenge the business may face. And we’re transparent with our enterprise data.
How would you go about addressing a business challenge? You would be self-reflective, you would go out and benchmark, you would collect information, you would bring in the right stakeholders, you would invest in it. Those are all things we have done to improve D&I at Lilly. We are fortunate that our top leaders are consistently setting and stating publicly their expectations that we are going to have an inclusive culture, that we are going to hold leaders accountable, and that we will build inclusive and diverse teams.
In the legal department, we do a few other things that are unique to our team. We have partnered with Indianapolis area high school programs to strengthen diversity in the pipeline by exposing diverse students to the legal profession, and right now we’re looking at doing Lilly internships for law students. We also have some mentoring programmes for law firms and colleges, which helps us to empower earlier stage lawyers and law students and provide exposure to the opportunities that are available to them. We have also been holding fireside chats within the legal department, which give people on the team an opportunity to openly share their views on our culture and what aspects of it we can improve. We participate in pro bono activities and have also put our money where our mouth is, especially on the racial justice front. Lilly has committed over 25,000 employee volunteer hours and multiple internal initiatives over the next five years, and the Lilly Foundation has committed $25 million of community investment over the same time period. When we hire, we are mindful and intentional about considering a diverse pool of candidates – and ensuring a diverse panel of interviewers.
As General Counsel, I have a lot to live up to in meeting the D&I expectations of our leadership, but it is a thrilling challenge to take on. Diverse candidates bring strength to a team and people who have overcome adversity often make exceptionally strong leaders.
Legal Business’ recent analysis of Ireland’s legal market warned against underestimating the resilience of the Irish, so Mason Hayes & Curran’s less-than-catastrophic 6% dip in turnover for a financial year defined by Covid-19 should come as little surprise.
Revenues at the full-service Irish firm fell to €80m as it acknowledged a substantial hit to both transactional and contentious workflows. In a statement, managing partner Declan Black (pictured) chalked up the fall in disputes work to ‘significantly reduced court hearings’. Overall however, he was ‘satisfied’ with the results and noted ‘professional services were comparatively insulated from the worst effects of the pandemic.’ Continue reading “Reality bites as Mason Hayes posts 6% revenue drop in bellwether for Irish firms”
Maintaining the international flavour of recent lateral hiring activity, Clifford Chance, Kirkland & Ellis, RPC and Reed Smith have all announced hires overseas this past week.
In Asia, G100 heavyweight Kirkland has strengthened its Hong Kong capital markets practice with the hire of partner Mengyu Lu, who arrives from Sidley Austin. Lu’s expertise lies in advising on IPOs, M&A and post-listing compliance matters. David Zhang, a partner in Kirkland’s Asia corporate group, described Lu as a ‘rising star’. He added: ‘We are confident that she will bolster our market-leading capital markets practice in Asia.’ Continue reading “Revolving Doors: International hires continue as firms increase Asia focus”
Traditional leadership models suggest people hanker for a hero in time of crisis. That’s an unfamiliar and uncomfortable role for law firm leaders say Professor Laura Empson and David Morley
It is often said that the legal industry excels in extreme market conditions and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s 2020 financial results bear testament to that, with the firm’s London office proving again bullish on the back of a stellar run of restructuring matters.
In what has been a fast-paced start to 2021, a host of firms including Hogan Lovells, Shearman & Sterling, Clyde & Co, Goodwin, Greenberg Traurig and HFW have contributed to a largely international set of lateral partner hires this past week.
The whimpering conclusion to the three-year saga that dragged City law into the middle of #MeToo could hardly have been more frustrating for everyone concerned.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) said on Thursday (14 January) it had decided to stay proceedings against Allen & Overy employment veteran Mark Mansell (aka Solicitor Z) relating to a non-disclosure agreement drawn up for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 1998. The grounds – Mansell’s ill health meant that continuing with a trial posed a significant risk to his life. Continue reading “Comment: Depressing end to Weinstein gagging order narrative means closure for none”
Listed firm Knights may have posted a robust 45% rise in 2021 half-year revenues from £31.9m to £46.2m, but acknowledged that without its slew of acquisitions turnover dropped in real terms from the same period last year by £4.8m (15%).
In an expansive start to the new year, UK firms Kennedys , TLT and Clyde & Co have established new frontiers at home and abroad.
Kennedys has opened its 42nd global office, and its 12th in the UK, with a Leeds launch via the acquisition of Langleys’ insurance team. The new office will be headed up by David Thompson, formerly managing partner and head of insurance at Langleys. He will be joined by three other partners and 32 team heads, lawyers and staff from the insurance group. Continue reading “Kennedys opens 36-strong Leeds office as TLT and Clydes expand overseas ”
Innovative, Covid-driven transactions have continued to emerge in recent months, with the first working week of 2021 proving no exception. As many embark on ‘Veganuary’ after the meaty excesses of the holiday season, a timely deal has been the acquisition by LIVEKINDLY Collective, a collection of plant-based food companies, of No Meat, Iceland Foods’ vegan meat alternative company.
Change is afoot at City leader Macfarlanes as Luke Powell has been lined up to succeed Julian Howard as managing partner, while the firm has appointed its first chief operating officer. At the same time, it was announced the much-admired former senior partner Charles Martin will retire from the partnership in April.
Firms have doubled down on their recruitment efforts in the new year as the likes of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP), K&L Gates, Mishcon de Reya, Morrison & Foerster and Keystone Law all made hires.
In March last year – as the Covid-19 crisis gathered pace – I wrote in Legal Business that if you’re a leader when an emergency happens, you need to act like one. I added that, as the leader, you are also communicator-in-chief.
Showing no sign of pandemic-induced slowdown, US-bred dispute resolution specialist Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has hiked London revenues by 27% to reach £127.4m.
The new year has kicked off with a number of large Global 100 firms revealing their latest partner promotion rounds – with the City and gender diversity receiving varying levels of attention.
The City hiring pushscarcely abated during the holiday season, with a host of laterals announced just before and just after the break. The most significant was the announced departure of Travers Smith veteran and private equity star Paul Dolman for Latham & Watkins.
Many businesses have a diversity and inclusion (D&I) policy, but at Nokia, we prefer to think of inclusion & diversity. Inclusion is the foundation upon which diversity flourishes in an organisation. An environment where people feel they can be themselves and contribute to the best of their abilities is the surest way to attract more diverse candidates.
As Chief Legal Officer, I believe inclusion is fundamental. The first step is to ensure people feel part of the team, to make them feel that they are valued, that they can contribute, that they can feel safe being who they are, and that they can bring the best of themselves to Nokia. If you don’t have that foundational belief in inclusion then diversity is just a statistic, and statistics without impact are meaningless.. Creating a safe space where our people in every part of the organisation feel that they have a real chance to progress and be included is essential in encouraging diversity.
When I first took on the role of Chief Legal Officer, I’m sure everyone expected that I would appoint someone from my leadership team into one of the key roles in my organisation. Much to everybody’s surprise, I hired a person from elsewhere in the organisation. She joined my leadership team and created such a positive reaction in the team that when there next were open positions, the number of applications multiplied, and I had people from every part of the organisation apply. That sort of open environment encourages people to step up, apply for jobs and become more visible in the organisation by taking leadership roles.
Legal teams can be hugely influential in setting the inclusion and diversity agenda. The role we play in our companies, our influence, our ability to drive decisions, and the fact that we are involved in many discussions and embedded in the business in a significant way means we are uniquely positioned to influence the wider culture.
Coming Out for I&D
Corporate diversity initiatives are a journey that typically starts with tackling a particular issue, for example, improving gender diversity, before gradually broadening out to look at ethnic and racial minorities, people with disabilities, age gap issues, and other forms of diversity. I happen to be interested in all aspects of diversity, but being gay = I was keen on advancing I&D at Nokia to include our LGBT+ communities. One example of this work has been helping the Nokia LGBT+ employee resource group to launch the OUT Leaders programme. By stepping up as an ‘out’ leader and making myself visible within the organisation, I am helping to draw attention to the fact that you can be your authentic self and be included at Nokia. Shortly after we launched the initiative, I was appointed as Chief Legal Officer, which I see as a very positive message for both our leadership and the company.
However, I wanted the programme to become more than just one leader stepping out and speaking up. In the second phase of the programme, which we launched last November, we look at bringing something positive and giving opportunities to our leaders at Nokia by focusing on development, providing mentorship and networking opportunities, and creating the opportunity to design, develop and implement a project that will be sponsored by one of Nokia’s global leaders. Members of Nokia’s LGBT+ communities will join with external and internal people from our customer network, suppliers, the recruitment community, and some of our own senior figures to speak about what it means to be an ‘out’ leader and to develop your career. Hopefully, this will help the participants build their leadership skills and provide them with a mentorship opportunity from a senior leader in the organisation who will support them to develop and grow. It will also give them an opportunity to be visible in the organisation by profiling them in our internal communications, giving them an opportunity to develop and implement this project further.
Nassib Abou-Khalil | Nokia
As the project matures, it is moving from an aspirational idea to something that truly gives people in the LGBT+ community the tools and platform to succeed, to learn how to be a role model and to inspire others within Nokia. We want to cement the atmosphere that Nokia is an employer of choice for the LGBT+ community, that this community is encouraged to thrive within Nokia, and that Nokia takes the development of the LGBT+ community seriously.
I feel a responsibility toward the LGBT+ community. I have been fortunate enough to be successful in my career, but I also have lived some of the challenges that many LGBT+ people face, such as coming out in the workplace, to your family, to your friends. Granted, times have changed, and things have developed, but they haven’t changed that much. The struggles are still there. Things have improved, but we cannot speak of absolute equality. And when we look at the global workplace, I am even less sure that we have reason to be complacent. I felt a sense of duty and a sense of responsibility to be active in the LGBT+ space. That said, our LGBT+ initiatives are important for everyone. I want everybody in my team to feel that they can be their authentic self and contribute to their fullest capacity when they are contributing to the success of Nokia.
Going global
Businesses in Europe, and especially in the US, tend to have more I&D infrastructure. There are certainly more organisations – the likes of Diversity Lab and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association – to help advance the conversation. Typically, the major initiatives have been entirely focused on US companies, or the US offices of multinationals. The next step is to make sure we have truly global initiatives that acknowledge the different conversations happening at a local level. As a result, we are looking to work with Diversity Lab and pilot the Mansfield Rules 2.0 that can be measured based on our global operations. This will help us develop the playbook for this certification that applies to global businesses.
A year ago, we were the first multinational with a global presence to join the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. We are working to take some of our initiatives and export them outside the US, bringing them alive in a much more global scene. As with many of our initiatives, the objective is to partner with thought leaders, take established policies and frameworks, and see how we can work together to extend their reach.
Of course, this also applies to how we work with law firms. Given that we look at I&D from an inside-out perspective, I will be re-evaluating how we work with outside counsel and our panel firms. In my role as Chief Legal Officer, the immediate step for me is to develop measurable criteria that we expect our outside counsel to implement when they are working with us, and these will be around inclusion and diversity. We are thinking very hard about what exactly we will ask our law firms to do, and how we can measure it. Our aspiration is not just to talk about things, but to do things.
I am deeply grateful to both the MCCA and Diversity Lab for their support and partnership with Nokia and to the entire Nokia Legal and Compliance team for believing in and being committed to our I&D initiatives.
