Capsticks LLP

Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)

At Capsticks, we rely on the talents of a diverse and highly skilled workforce. Diversity and inclusion are cornerstones to the way we operate daily. We know that it is the difference amongst people which adds strength to our organisation and ensures we are able to provide the best service to our clients. The firm will strive at all times to meet, as a minimum, its legislative and regulatory duties by ensuring our culture is one where inclusion and mutual respect are core principles which are celebrated by all.

In practice, this means that everyone who interacts with the firm (employees, partners, secondees, outsourced providers and agency workers, clients and third party contractors) will receive equal treatment regardless of sex (including pregnancy and maternity), gender and gender reassignment, marital and civil partnership status, age, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origin), sexual orientation, religion, belief, social background or disability (referred to below as 'protected characteristics').

We believe in taking a proactive approach to diversity and inclusion that makes best use of everyone’s unique talents. We achieve this through a mix of:

• A genuinely open culture
• Compulsory diversity training
• Highly robust recruitment procedures

Our commitment to diversity means going beyond compliance with anti-discrimination legislation. We monitor the diversity profile of our workforce so that we can measure progress over time. Please see our latest diversity statistics.

We welcome the gender pay gap reporting initiative as an important step in creating greater gender balance within the legal profession, and the legal sector as a whole. Read our gender and ethnicity pay gap report 2020.

In recent months we have arranged events to celebrate International Women's Day, marked Mental Health Awareness Week with a focus on health and wellbeing, and are proud to be part of the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme.

We pride ourselves in celebrating difference and promoting equality and inclusion through our EDI initiatives. Below are some examples of our recent EDI initiatives:

• In October 2019 we became corporate signatories to Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter, committing to an open and honest dialogue about race and committing to achieve further diversity and equality through initiatives such as championing, sponsorship and mentoring.
• We are corporate partners of the Black Solicitors Network and hosted a table at the annual EDI awards in 2018. We celebrate Black History Month and are making plans for this October.
• We are corporate diversity champions of Stonewall and are using their extensive experience to help us further embed EDI within our culture. Stonewall recently hosted ‘lunch and learn’ awareness raising sessions in each of our offices and we hosted a float at Leeds Pride in 2019 and had a remote presence at Stonewall’s annual conference this year.
• We are corporate signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, a public commitment by law firms and their clients to create workplaces where unnecessary sources of stress are removed and where good mental health wellbeing is actively promoted. We have 15 Mental Health First Aiders who meet quarterly to promote the wellbeing agenda.
• Hosted EDI round tables open to all staff across each of our offices to invite their thoughts around our objectives and to share their ideas.