Baker McKenzie First Global Law Firm to Set 40:40:20 Gender Targets
Global June 24 2019: Baker McKenzie is delighted to announce today new global aspirational targets set at 40:40:20 percent gender diversity, to represent 40% women, 40% men and 20% flexible (women, men or non-binary persons). This target applies to Partners, senior business professionals, Firm committee leadership and candidate pools for recruitment.
Baker McKenzie has set a target date of 1 July 2025. More immediately, from today all candidate pools for external recruitment for Partners or senior business professionals should meet the new targets. From July 2020, in offices which do not yet have at least 25% women partners, at least 25 percent, or one out of four, partner promotions should be a woman.
Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort, Global Diversity & Inclusion Committee Chair and member of Baker McKenzie’s Global Executive Committee said “We have made a big step towards providing equal opportunities for women with the overwhelming support of our senior leadership. Twenty years after electing the first female Chair of any global law firm I am proud to say that once again Baker McKenzie is leading the way in the legal sector.”
“We have a strong commitment to recruiting a diverse pool of talent and creating an inclusive workplace environment where our people are able to reach their fullest potential. We believe diversity makes us stronger, and better placed to serve our clients, and the communities in which we work. As such, diversity forms a core part of our strategy, across the Firm globally. We are extremely proud that, in a recent Firm-wide survey, 98% of our people agreed with the statement, “This Firm values diversity in its workforce.”
Jaime Trujillo, Acting Global Chair, Baker McKenzie said, “We are already making great progress in many areas toward this critical goal. We have more female partners than any other law firm and for the last three years our promotions to partner have been on average 40% women. And several of our Industry Group leadership teams have at least 50% female members. Our new 40:40:20 targets will ensure that we continue to do everything possible to make sure the Firm is a fair and inclusive place to work and that we create the best environment for all our people.”