Holmes O'Malley Sexton

Holmes O’Malley Sexton treat our clients, colleagues and partners fairly and always with respect.

We are committed to addressing diversity, inclusion and social mobility. We are passionate about attracting, retaining and developing the most talented and skilled individuals from all backgrounds. We value people of all cultures, nationalities, races, religions, and ethnicities, regardless of characteristics such as gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.

We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of our clients and our communities. We believe that diversity of people, perspectives, skills, experiences and ideas creates strength for our business and enables us to provide our clients with the best legal service possible. We prohibit discrimination, victimisation or harassment of any kind.

As individuals, we all want to work in an environment where our ideas and voices are heard. We provide an environment that respects all individuals and their contributions and fosters innovation. We have an active diversity committee made up of employees from across our business to promote awareness of diversity and address diversity-related challenges or initiatives. We promote employee resource groups which allow diversity to be expressed in meaningful ways. They are independent, voluntary networks of employees who share common interests. These groups help set diversity priorities, drive diversity initiatives and community involvement and promote career development through mentoring, workshops and external networking. We provide one-to-one coaching and sponsorship to support development and career progression.

We believe flexible working can increase staff motivation, promote work-life balance, reduce employee stress and improve performance and productivity. We offer a variety of flexible work options, including part-time and flexi-time working, job sharing, home working, time off to care for children or other family members and career breaks. We offer employee assistance programmes, including a free confidential helpline with several services, including personal, legal, financial, tax and relationship advice. The service operates 24 hours a day throughout the year and is available to all employees and their immediate families.

We are a signatory of The Law Society’s Diversity Charter, a public commitment by legal practices to promote the values of diversity, equality and inclusion throughout their firm.

Some of our specific initiatives to improve diversity, inclusion and social mobility include:

1. We participate in an Irish Association of Supported Employment scheme in which adults with special needs are assessed for specific roles within our firm. This has been a tremendous success with the firm employing a filing assistant with deafness (and provision to training to our staff in this respect to ensure inclusion and proper communication) and office assistants Kieran and Kevin, who have been with the firm for over 15 years, working part-time hours to suit their specific requirements. Kieran and Kevin are planning to stay with us until retirement and are much loved within the firm by all the staff and a vital part of our team.
2. University scholarships – various scholarships to help fund students through third level education.
3. Funding and sponsorship of various enterprise initiatives for students and start-up companies and business awards.
4. Since 2017 we have provided a TY Law Day in DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) disadvantaged girls schools’ to encourage further education. We were shortlisted for the prestigious Chambers Ireland CSR Awards 2019 in the Community Programme category for our innovative Transition Year Programmes.
5. Our educational assistance program has enabled many of our support staff to progress and obtain further qualifications leading to promotion to legal executives, accounts assistants and solicitors. We also support all our staff with progression to further qualifications and specialisms to facilitate them, and in turn our firm and our clients, to succeed and develop professionally. We have invested heavily in leadership programmes, further diplomas and qualifications and an in-house training scheme, led by our knowledge manager.
6. Diversity, inclusion and disability training. We provide all staff with training in the provision of legal services to clients who may have disabilities, special needs, mental health issues; elderly, vulnerable adults or children; or those suffering from a brain injury and other injuries.

Our investment in our people was recognised by the awarding of the Best Employer: Talent Development and Workplace Wellness Award at the Limerick Regional Business Awards 2017.