Carolyn Jameson (CJ): We try to address diversity in everything we do. For instance, we adopt flexible working hours. We don’t really have core hours and essentially we say to people, ‘you work to suit you’. It really helps personally for me − I’ve got three kids.
Continue reading “Interview: Carolyn Jameson, chief legal officer, Skyscanner”
I think there is something about risk aversion within the legal profession, and I think there is this notion that if you widen your intake, to diversify your staff base, you might somehow lower standards or you might compromise excellence. There’s no evidence for this whatsoever – and there’s partly no evidence because they’re not hiring these people in the first place!
Continue reading “Interview: David Johnston, chief executive, Social Mobility Foundation”
Diversity and inclusion within National Grid and the legal team has been a priority over the last 12 years. We have an aim to mirror the populations we serve. National Grid does a lot of work in communities; we are involved with work on power lines and digging up streets – we are out there and people expect to see a diverse workforce.
Continue reading “Interview: Alison Kay, chief legal officer, National Grid”
Do lawyers have a key part to play in diversity and inclusion (D&I)? My gut says yes, we have elevated responsibilities in terms of fiduciary duties and as regulated professionals, so I believe we should hold ourselves to a heightened standard, but everyone has a role to play. I wouldn’t want to say that legal has an obligation to do anything different to the rest of our colleagues, but the fact is we are often, as a profession, at the forefront of things. I don’t think anyone should abdicate their responsibility towards D&I – because it is ultimately about doing the right thing.
GC: Can you give me an idea of how and why you started Rare Recruitment?
Continue reading “Interview: Raphael Mokades, founder, Rare Recruitment”
GC: Is your diversity and inclusion approach primarily driven by internal factors or external pressures?
Continue reading “Interview: Sandie Okoro, general counsel, HSBC Global Asset Management”
Vodafone as a whole has a D&I strategy, which covers the three Cs: colleagues, customers and communities. ‘Colleagues’ is what we do for employees. We work hard to make sure there’s a talent and gender balance in every team, we look at career life stages, and then we look at making sure there’s an inclusive culture.
Continue reading “Interview: Kerry Phillip, legal director, Vodafone Group Enterprise”
Prash Naik (PN): The 360° Diversity Charter was launched in January 2015, and it’s part of a five-year plan that puts diversity at the heart of all the decisions that we make within the Channel, both on- and off-screen. Channel 4 is a publisher-broadcaster, so we don��t have in-house production; we work with over three hundred independent production companies. It was felt to be important that as well as imposing aspirational targets on our third-party suppliers, we should impose an equally challenging set of targets internally.
GC: Is your diversity and inclusion strategy primarily driven from internal factors or external pressures?
GC: When you joined HBO Europe in 2011, you undertook a review of the company’s legal systems. Could you tell us a little bit about that process?
Gordon Finlayson (GF): I’ve been with the business now for three years, and I came in at a point when it had changed quite significantly in terms of its management and ownership structure. It had previously been a joint venture between Disney, Sony and HBO, and HBO bought out the business shortly before I arrived. As part of that change, our CEO, Linda Jensen, brought on board a number of new members of senior management.
Continue reading “Revolution! How a GC unified processes and rolled out a bespoke IT system”