Diversity and Inclusion

We are a firm that is committed to 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.

Inclusion and diversity is high on the agenda for Mewburn Ellis. It’s part of our business plan and is being driven by our management board. For us, inclusion and diversity is more than just a tick-box exercise – it is ingrained in our business plan and imbedded in our culture. We strive to be leaders in this area, and whilst we have made strong progress to date, there is always more that can be done. We already have strong gender diversity across the firm as a whole with ~1/3 men and ~2/3 women (as at end July 2023) and are focussed on being a more inclusive firm.

Journey so far

We began our journey in early 2021 when we started to work with external specialist consultants Brook Graham. We undertook an audit of our existing culture, processes and practices to help us establish a dedicated I&D strategy for the firm. We also ran an awareness building programme, staff survey and focus groups to explore key themes. We have shared the results of this work with all our people. Our aim is to make inclusivity a whole firm project.

From our research and with Brook Graham's expertise, we developed a strategic I&D framework that explores four key areas. Inclusivity for us is about the people we hire, the careers we nurture, the culture we build and the relationships we have with our clients. We have made developments in these areas. Our Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer works closely with the Inclusion & Diversity Collaboration Group to continually develop the firm’s I&D approach. We are proud to be using Rare Recruitment’s Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) which allows us to consider an applicant’s achievements in the context in which they were gained.

Strategic I&D framework

I&D Strategy Table Jan 2022

We are using these key areas to build upon our firmwide approach to inclusion and diversity that benefits our people, our clients and our business as a whole. We are committed to making sure that Mewburn Ellis is a place where equality and diversity are celebrated, where we have diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints and that our people, regardless of their background, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation feel they belong and can bring their 'true self' to work.

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, diversity and culture

Chief I&D Officer & Collaboration 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, which is a forum empowering our people to take an active role in building and delivering the firm’s inclusion and diversity initiatives.

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 of 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.

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're already well on our way.

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Jeremy

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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

Other I&D activity at the firm

We are a corporate sponsor of IP Inclusive
Our Managing Partner Richard Clegg is part of the IP Inclusive Senior Leaders'
Diversity Think Tank
Our Managing Partner Richard Clegg and our Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer Robert Andrews have publicly committed to improving access to the IP profession through the IP Inclusive "Sharing Our Privileges" programme
We support AIPLA Women in IP and hold events for them
One of our Senior Associates Lucy Coe leads the Women in IP committee lead for IP Inclusive
We have a regular I&D thought leader column in Forward Magazine
Our people regularly engage with IP Inclusive and attend IP Inclusive events
We have a Menopause Policy and Menopause Champions at the firm. We have signed the Menopause Workplace Pledge from women’s health charity Wellbeing of Women. This means we recognise that the menopause can be an issue in the workplace and women need support, we are talking openly, positively and respectfully about the menopause and actively supporting and informing employees affected by the menopause.
Three of our wonderful women have been listed in the World IP Review Diversity 2023 publication which recognises individuals with a focus on I&D.

Read our Inclusion & Diversity Blogs

Mewburn Ellis achieves Menopause Friendly Accreditation

We are proud to have been awarded the Menopause Friendly Accreditation, established by Henpicked: Menopause in the Workplace, recognising high standards and proven practices which embrace menopause ...

Yoni Health: the medical secrets of menstrual blood

Menstrual effluent contains a wealth of scientific info, including biomarkers for endometriosis, diabetes, certain cancers and polycystic ovary syndrome. Yoni Health is the first start-up in this ...

Lucie Jones appointed to CIPA IP Paralegal Committee

Congratulations to Lucie Jones on her appointment to the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) IP Paralegal Committee!

Meet our Women’s Champion: Fran Salisbury

Even the most progressive firm can improve working life for women.

AI bias in healthcare

AI tools are increasingly being used in healthcare settings, with applications ranging from analysing brain scans to identifying people who would benefit from extra support from their care providers. ...

Podcast with Robert Andrews: a forward-thinking approach to inclusion & diversity

Robert Andrews joins Lisa Mueller and Vivian Luiz Coco on their Inclusion Evolution podcast to discuss our inclusion & diversity journey and forward-thinking strategy for translating good intent ...

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 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 under developed 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. Our recent rebrand was to capture what we believe is at the very heart of our firm – being forward-looking. To be a truly forward-looking firm, community must be at the very heart of our culture. We are at the beginning of an exciting journey to develop what we believe will be a vital community programme to deliver our CSR initiatives. Our Forward Community Programme covers the following key areas:

Inclusivity

Encouraging that equality and diversity are celebrated. We actively ensure our firm has diversity of thought, ideas and viewpoints and all of 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 also monitor our gender pay gap figures, even though we aren't legally required to do this yet. Read more about our inclusivity initiatives and a summary of our gender pay gap figures here.

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 £750,000 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 are in the process of completely redeveloping our approach to facilities management and bringing in new resources to look after the environmental areas of our Forward Community Programme and drive this area forward.

Gender Pay Gap: Updated 2023

Committed to Gender Equality

We took the decision to be open about our Gender Pay Gap figures before we were legally required to report on these statistics. We have been tracking them for the last four years and have produced them for both our staff and our partnership.

The overall gender split of firm remains biased towards women at 62% female and men at 38% make. We still have significantly more women employees (67%) in upper middle positions than men (33%). At the upper level, the split has changed from 45% men and 55% women in 2019 to 49% men and 51% women in 2022. It has then changed again to 55% men and 46% women in 2023.

We currently have 52 partners in total, including our consulting partners. 72% of our partners are men and 27% are women. In our lower quartile our partnership is 54% men and 46% women, reflecting the balanced male/female appointments we have made in recent years. We have made strong improvements which reflect our committment to having a diverse partnership.

We are not evenly split in our upper quartiles. This mainly reflects the fact that most upper quartile partners have been at the firm for over 20 years and at the time they joined the firm, there were far fewer women studying STEM qualifications and entering the patent profession.

Evolving the make-up of our senior partnreship will therefore take time, as the partners in our balanced lower quartiles gain seniority. It is important to note that our partnership continually expands, rather than specific spaces being allocated or a 'one in one out' system being in place; this also affects the rate gender balance can change.

Inclusion & Diversity:

Celebrating equality & diversity