International firm Squire Patton Boggs has said it is ahead of its target for gender diversity and is on track to achieve its aim of 25% of UK partners being women by 2026.

The firm set several targets as part of a five-year plan to improve diversity and inclusion last year, at which point the firm had 17% female partners and 13% ethnic minority representation.

Squire Patton Boggs said that 21% of its partners in the UK are now women, ahead of its target of 20% within two years, while there was a slight increase in ethnic minority representation to 14% – putting it on course to reach its goals of 16% by 2023 and 19% by 2026.

European managing partner Jonathan Jones said when the targets were announced last April that the firm was ‘holding ourselves to account as we seek to develop a culture that is rich in diversity, inclusive and recognised as fair and transparent’.

However, the targets are significantly lower than those of other leading firms: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, for example, pledged last year that women will occupy at least 40% of global leadership roles by 2023.

Jones said in a statement: ‘Our first year in our five-year plan has seen some measurable progress on some important fronts as we work towards establishing a culture that is more inclusive, fairer and more transparent.’ But he added: ‘There still remains much for us to do as we continue this journey but we are determined to get there.’

Jones told the Gazette that other firms are right to set ambitious targets, but said: ‘I felt we needed to walk before could run.’ ‘I didn’t want to set a target which is unrealistic,’ he added. ‘I think we will get to where we want to, I think we will get to 25% by 2026.’

He also said he was ‘conscious that this is the start of a long journey’, adding: ‘Part of that journey is cultural for us, recognising that we need to create and build on our culture which recognises that people contribute in different ways and different times’.

Jones said he wanted Squire Patton Boggs to have diversity and inclusion ‘rooted in our DNA’ and that ‘the sense of it being the right to do needs to permeate the organisation’.

 

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