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case study:

The Strategic Excellence Programme at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP

Background

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is one of the leading international 'magic circle' law firms, providing comprehensive advice to national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments throughout Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the US. The firm has over 2,500 lawyers in 27 key business centres around the world.

The Strategic Excellence Programme has been developed to support the retention and development of Freshfields’ female lawyers. It also supports male and female partners in understanding the crucial role they play as role models and change agents.  Both male and female partners have their own coach and are involved as mentors for the programmes, learning about the issues facing women in the workplace as well as being able to pass on their experience and skills.  

Objectives

Freshfields has several objectives for the programme including:

• The retention and development of its female talent  (including the partner pipeline) 
• The reduction of costs wasted through the loss of talented women lawyers
• Meeting the outlook and expectations of its younger generation employees

The Strategic Excellence Programme is a business and leadership coaching programme for women at all levels at Freshfields. The programme enables women to take a bigger picture look at their careers  and abilities in the context of the firm's business and strategy.  It helps them develop a vision for themselves and understand the skills necessary to achieve that vision.   Just as importantly, it is designed to add to the partnership’s understanding of how women can best be supported to stay and progress within the firm.

The programme

Initailly, Aspire conducted a series of 1-to-1 interviews with male and female partners, associates and clients to understand the key issues with regards to the advancement of women in the firm.

The introductory programme focuses on the skills, confidence and capability needed to excel in the early stages of a legal career at the firm.

For senior lawyers, the firm is conducting a 12-month small group coaching programme consisting of workshops, monthly coaching calls and regular mentoring sessions with senior partners.  The intention is to enable the participants to develop their leadership and communication skills while also becoming role models for more junior women. 

Partners also have the opportunity to join a one on one coaching programme which includes a particular focus on understanding the importance of being a role model; research suggests that any perception that there are insufficient role models in any organization is a significant barrier to career advancement for women. 

Aspire has also recently facilitated a global conference for partners to discuss, brainstorm and explore the strong business case for diversity and their role in the solutions required to produce a more diverse firm.

Initial feedback

“We want the women at Freshfields to know that the firm is serious about gender diversity and is prepared to commit significant resource to addressing it. It’s very early days, but the initial feedback is strong. Participants on one programme commented that it made a material difference to their approach to work; an attendee on the launch day of another felt that it was ' the kind of journey in a day which it might take months to undertake in ordinary life' .”
Deborah Dalgleish, Head of Diversity, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, LLP