Elkington + Fife LLP

At Elkington and Fife, we rightly take diversity seriously. We were among the first signatories to the charter of IP Inclusive - http://www.ipinclusive.org.uk/. IP Inclusive was founded by CIPA (the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys), CITMA(the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA), The IP Federation, FICPI-UK (The UK association of the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys) and The UK Intellectual Property Office. By doing so, we have made a public commitment to supporting and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in the IP professions.

As part of the above, one of our partners is our equality, diversity and inclusion officer. All of our partners and staff are aware of this and of their right to equal treatment at work and to raise issues if appropriate, knowing that we will take these seriously. They also know that we hire and promote purely on ability.

We also support this from the perspective of legal compliance. We inform staff in our employee handbook that we provide equal opportunities and are committed to the principle of equality in accordance with legislative provisions and that we expect their support in implementing these policies. We will also state that we will not condone any unlawful discriminatory act or attitude in the course of employment or in dealings with our clients, suppliers, contract workers, members of the public or with fellow employees and that acts of unlawful discrimination, harassment or victimisation will result in disciplinary action.