Inclusion & Diversity: Committed to inclusion

We are a firm that are committed to creating an inclusive culture with diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints and where all our people, regardless of their background, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation feel they belong.

We are committed to creating an inclusive culture with diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints where all our people, regardless of their background, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation feel they belong.

Inclusion and diversity is high on the agenda for Mewburn Ellis. Our commitment to inclusion is one of our six core values and is driven by our management board, each member of which has made a public commitment to inclusion. That value-driven leadership means that inclusion is ingrained in our business plan and imbedded in our culture.

We strive to be leaders in this area, sharing our ideas and resources with our peers across the IP sector and beyond. We are proud of our strong progress to date and remain aware that there is always more that can be done.

Journey so far

We set out on our journey in early 2021 with guidance from consultants Brook Graham (now part of Pinsent Mason). In that first stage, we audited our existing culture and practices, alongside consulting our people on their priorities through a staff survey and focus groups. We used the information we gained through that process to develop our strategic I&D framework, which we shared – along with the foundational data - with all our people. Our aim from the outset was to keep our I&D strategy as something made by, and for, the whole firm.

Our Inclusion & Diversity strategy initially focussed on four key areas: the people we hire (Inclusive Talent Attraction), the careers we nurture (Inclusive Careers), the culture we build (Inclusive Culture), and the relationships we have with our clients (Inclusive Client Relationships).

I&D Strategy Table Jan 2022

In each of the years since then, we’ve published a review and update of our progress in I&D as part of our annual ‘Sustainable Communities’ special report:

Sustainable Communities 2022

Sustainable Communities 2023

Sustainable Communities 2024

We are proud that our firmwide approach to inclusion and diversity detailed in these reports benefits our people, our clients and our business. We are committed to continue working to keep Mewburn Ellis as a place where inclusion is celebrated, where diversity of thought is nurtured, and where our people, regardless of their background or identity, feel they belong.

Mewburn Ellis support the Sustainable Development Goals. Our I&D work delivers against three of the seventeen goals.

A showcase of what it's like to work at Mewburn Ellis, with a focus on inclusion and culture

Culture is at the forefront of our priority, this is backed by our Great Place To Work™ recognition where 79% of our employees feel the firm is a great place to work. Not only do 94% of people here feel they are treated fairly regardless of their race, 96% of people say they are treated fairly regardless of their sexual orientation and 91% feel they are treated fairly regardless of their gender.

Leadership

The evolution of our business culture has been driven by clear, committed, and inclusive leadership. That leadership is organised into three main strands:

Our Chief I&D Officer
Our Management Board
Our wider leadership group

In January 2022 we launched a new Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer role and I&D Collaboration Group.

Robert Andrews joined our Leadership Team as Chief I&D Officer. He is responsible for leading the development and implementation of the strategy and ensuring the firm maintains focus and momentum at the highest level.

As part of his role he also leads Mewburn Ellis’ Inclusion & Diversity Collaboration Group. This group, established at the same time as the CIDO role, is a forum empowering our people to take an active role in building and delivering the firm’s inclusion and diversity initiatives. Robert works closely with the Inclusion & Diversity Collaboration Group to continually develop the firm’s approach to Inclusion & Diversity.

Management Board: A personal commitment to inclusivity

All members of our Management Board are personally signed up to the IP Inclusive Senior Leader's Pledge.

We are all committed to making real change.

We each commit to:

Providing visible and proactive leadership to improve I&D in our organisation, by:	Putting our names to this public statement as evidence of our commitment to improve I&D in Mewburn Ellis Demonstrating a personal and collective accountability for leading and delivering a I&D culture
Taking I&D seriously at the highest level, by:	Ensuring that I&D is fully integrated with our firm’s strategic priorities Including I&D as a standing agenda item in our Management Board meetings, Partner meetings and our all firm Town Halls Establishing, monitoring, and sharing our progress with an I&D Dashboard
Embedding and valuing I&D throughout the organisational culture, by:	Helping our leaders to develop the skills and behaviours required to be an inclusive leader, and hard coding those skills and behaviours into our ways of working Building awareness and commitment to I&D in all parts of our business, ensuring an active commitment in every office, team and role Empowering a representative group to support the delivery of our I&D strategy, to provide governance and to track our progress
Building trust and safe spaces throughout the organisation, by:	Sharing my own identity and experiences to encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work and speak openly about their identities Acting as an ally and trusted advisor to colleagues from under-represented groups
Educating ourselves and our colleagues about I&D issues, by:	Self-assessing our own behaviours, seeking feedback from others, and contributing actively to all I&D training and learning opportunities Providing unconscious bias awareness and mitigation training for everyone
Sharing our privileges, by:	Continuing to invest in young people in challenging circumstances and helping them develop a love of sciences through our national sponsorship of the CREST awards Continuing to help reduce homelessness and support initiatives such as The Booth Centre and Shelter from the Storm to help get people off the streets
Insisting on equity, by:	Committing to meaningful conversations that actively embrace the diversity of our people when collaborating on I&D plans and communications, I&D engagement, and to gather ongoing feedback Creating a talent management strategy, supported by a learning and development programme, that enables inclusive careers for everyone
Working closely with HR and management colleagues to achieve this, by:	Creating a pipeline for diverse talent to join our business in all roles by improving how we attract and recruit new talent

Wider Leadership Group

The firm’s leadership group is key to our Inclusion & Diversity strategy because leader behaviour is the single biggest determinant of inclusion. The behaviour of our leaders individually and collectively is therefore key to the success of our Inclusion & Diversity strategy. To this end, our leadership group of over 60 people have all taken part in an inclusive leadership training programme.

We have also established a reciprocal mentoring programme as a way to help junior colleagues transfer skills and knowledge to senior colleagues and for senior leaders to gain insight into views and perspectives from outside the leadership group.

We're Proud to Partner with the General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion (GCD&I)

GCD&I is a group representing the in-house legal functions for a number of major corporations who have come together to support increasing meaningful equity, diversity and inclusion across the legal profession, whether in their own in-house practices, or in the law firms that they work with, wherever they are located.

GCD&I is committed to a collaborative model to drive change, and we are delighted to partner with them. Doing so means that we commit to the objectives of the initiative to promote Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion across the legal sector.

Read our Inclusion & Diversity Blogs

Mewburn Ellis recognised as one of the UK's Best Workplaces™ for Women 2025

by Frances Salisbury

We are proud to announce that we have been named one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Women.

Mewburn Ellis is recognised as one of the UK's Best Workplaces™ for Development 2025

by Maria Hall

We are proud to announce that we have been named one of the UK’s Best Workplaces™ for Development.

Cat Savage: how to get women building ships

by Simon Parry

Catriona Savage, the first female president of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, is redefining maritime and STEM by championing diversity and inclusion. With women comprising just 12% of ...

Mewburn Ellis recognised in The Legal 500 UK Green Guide 2025

by Joanna Smith

We are delighted to announce that we have once again been recognised in The Legal 500 UK Green Guide 2025 edition. Congratulations to Eleanor Maciver who has been listed as a Green Ambassador.

Dr. Maike de la Roche: immunotherapy & thriving as a woman in science

by Fay Allen

The world-renowned pioneer in immunotherapy tells Mewburn Ellis about her work with CAR-T cells, the Hedgehog pathway and her tips for thriving as a woman in science.

Mewburn Ellis recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in Consulting and Professional Services!

by Maria Hall

We are proud to announce that following on from our recent announcement of being officially named as a Great Place To Work™ 2024, across all offices in the UK and Germany, we have also been ...

The Forward Community Programme

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is important to us. The success of our business relies upon our ability to attract, train and retain the best people. We support diversity of thought throughout our business and make every effort to create and maintain an inclusive culture. We recognise our responsibilities in the community and encourage our people to engage in activities that better society and build trust in our local communities. As a forward-looking firm, we understand the importance of minimising our environmental impact. Therefore, we are committed to facilitating environmentally friendly working practices by our people and in our offices.

The concept of CSR is in our opinion underdeveloped in our profession. We don’t want to just do what is required like many other firms - but go above and beyond. We have built our business over 150 years by looking ahead and adapting and changing at the right times. Thinking about the future of our planet and society, being a good corporate citizen and doing our bit to make a difference is a high priority for the firm.

Mewburn Ellis is a forward-looking firm, and we believe that to be truly forward-looking, community must be at the very heart of our culture. Founded on that belief, we have developed a vital community programme to deliver our CSR initiatives.

Our Forward Community Programme covers the following key areas:

Inclusivity

We actively support diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints within the firm, and strive to nurture a culture where all our people, regardless of their background, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation, feel they belong. We have a number of initiatives running including being a member of IP Inclusive, supporting Women in IP through AIPLA and regular inclusivity columns in our magazine Forward, as well as many more. We are proud that this work has enabled us to be formally recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’ as well as one of the UK's Best Workplaces™ for Development and one of the UK's Best Workplaces™ for Women.

Community

Community is important to Mewburn Ellis. For us this means nurturing our people, helping everyone develop and contributing to the wider communities in which we operate, as well as supporting worthy causes with time and money. We donate 1% of our profits to charity each year through our Forward Community Programme Charity Fund. Everyone that works at Mewburn Ellis has one community day per year to support causes they care about, and we operate a Give as You Earn (GAYE) scheme, so our people can donate to charities of their choice in a simple and tax effective way. Our combined community effort has amounted to more than £1,000,000 of investment since 2020.

Sustainability

We believe we must play our part in reducing the use of energy, lowering carbon emissions and reducing waste. We have completely redeveloped our approach to facilities management and brought in new resources to look after the environmental areas of our Forward Community Programme and drive this area forward. As a result of this effort, we were awarded the prestigious EcoVadis Platinum Medal in 2024. Mewburn Ellis is the world’s first Intellectual Property firm to receive this medal, which is the highest rating you can earn in sustainable business practices.