DEI - Greenwoods Legal Services Limited

The current picture

Our firm is majority female and majority state-school educated. In 2024, we saw an 11% increase in employees aged 16-24. In our most recent staff survey, 14% of respondents identified as Black, Asian, Mixed/Multiple, or other ethnic groups.

Those numbers are encouraging. They’re also not good enough. We know there’s more work to do, particularly around ethnic diversity at senior levels.

It’s not just about being decent people (though obviously that matters). It’s also about being effective lawyers.

Our clients come from all sorts of backgrounds and situations. If everyone in the firm looks the same, went to the same schools, and thinks the same way, we’re going to miss things. We’ll make assumptions we shouldn’t make. We won’t spot problems we should spot.

Diversity isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what makes us better at our jobs.

Why this matters

What we're doing

We have a DEI Committee made up of people from across the business and at different levels of seniority. They push us to do better and suggest initiatives that actually make a difference.

Recent things we’ve done:

Carer and parent networks – creating support for people juggling work with caring responsibilities

Interactive DEI training – actual conversations about real workplace scenarios, facilitated by Equally Yours

‘Realities of Living in a Trans Body’ – a session with performance artist Fleur Bloemsma to help colleagues understand transgender experiences

Black History Month events – with speakers including Rudy Ebanks and Bernadetta Omondi, Chair of Peterborough Black History Month

Employee-led sessions – Pride@5 and neurodiversity awareness, run by team members who wanted to share their experiences

Some of these sessions have been uncomfortable. That’s often the point. You don’t make progress by only having comfortable conversations.

What we're still working on

We need to get better at recruitment from underrepresented groups. We need to make sure career progression opportunities are genuinely equal, not just theoretically equal. We need to keep listening when people tell us we’re getting something wrong.

This is ongoing work, not a box we can tick and move on from. We’re committed to it, but we’re also realistic about the fact that good intentions don’t automatically translate to good outcomes. You have to keep showing up and doing the work.

Download Our Diversity Survey Data

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Diversity & Inclusion

Why we care and what we're actually doing about it

The current picture

Why this matters

What we're doing

What we're still working on

Download Our Diversity Survey Data

Download Our Diversity Survey Data

The current picture

Why this matters

What we're doing

What we're still working on

About us

Download Our Diversity Survey Data

Download Our Diversity Survey Data