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Diversity
Our People
We are an international law firm employing over 400 staff worldwide, approximately 60% of whom are based in London.
It is our belief that exceptional client service can only be delivered by exceptional people. Watson, Farley & Williams aims to be an employer of choice for the best talent, attracting and retaining the best in our chosen fields regardless of background. All our recruitment, development and promotion criteria are based upon objective, business related criteria, with competency based interviews used throughout the selection process.
We create an inclusive work environment where everybody has the opportunity to succeed without obstacles based on their gender, ethnicity, marital status, race, colour, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, age or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
The firm aims to ensure that individuals are selected, trained, promoted and treated on the basis of their abilities and merits and the needs of the firm.
Our commitment to diversity includes
- Ensuring employment policies support diversity e.g. enhanced maternity pay to encourage female lawyers to return to work following pregnancy
- Monitoring every stage of the recruitment selection process to ensure the criteria do not disproportionately disadvantage any particular social group of candidates
- Monitoring of our workforce, by sex and ethnicity
- Annual review of salaries for Equal Pay purposes
- Creating an inclusive working environment where everyone can prosper
- Where possible to facilitate flexible working, particularly, but not limited to those returning from maternity leave
- Targeted recruitment advertising in relevant publications
- Being supportive of initiatives within the legal profession that promote diversity e.g. Legal Chances
Trainees
Trainees are the lifeblood of the WFW and we value and rate our trainee programme very highly. In the last 5 years we have recruited graduates from 22 universities. The breakdown by sex, ethnicity and degree during that time is as follows:
Sex: 66.6% female: 33.3% male
Ethnicity: 18.5% not White/European
Degree: 57.5% Law: 42.5 Non- Law
Our application process is exclusively on-line and we use a variety of selection techniques, including assessment centres, to select the best candidates in the most objective way. We welcome applications from non-law graduates as the above figures show, in addition to those changing careers.
80% of the qualifying trainees during the last five years have remained with us on qualification.
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