Hogan Lovells signs Race Fairness Commitment to support BAME lawyers

Hogan Lovells signs Race Fairness Commitment to support BAME lawyers

Awards & rankings | 06 July 2020

London, 6 July 2020 – Global law firm Hogan Lovells has signed the Race Fairness Commitment (RFC), which mandates exacting data-driven techniques to identify room for improvement within the firm's culture and hierarchy for Black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) lawyers.

Hogan Lovells, one of 17 participating law firms with UK operations, has signed as part of its ongoing objective to recruit, retain and develop BAME talent and ensure that ethnic minority lawyers have every chance to lead fulfilling careers at their firms.

Pathfinding measures included in the Race Fairness Commitment (RFC) include close analysis of quantitative data and monitoring throughout careers, from recruitment to senior promotion, in order to identify and attack the points at which BAME lawyers are unfairly falling behind their peers. Firms have also committed to decisive steps to ensure that race and racism are better recognised and talked about internally.

The firm and others will support the RFC's efforts to carry out close analysis of quantitative data and monitoring of employee lifecycles from recruitment to senior promotion, in order to identify and address the points at which Black and ethnic minority people are falling behind their peers.

Sengova Kailondo, Rare alumnus and associate at Hogan Lovells, with almost three years’ post-qualification experience, said: "My own experience as a Black lawyer at Hogan Lovells has been very positive. I know from discussions with my peers however that not everyone has been as lucky as me. I think the key variables for me have been access to and support from senior people from an early stage, and a practice group which is diverse in terms of race and gender and does not have the sort of strong ‘boarding school culture’ that can be prevalent in some law firms. This Commitment should help make my experience the norm rather than the exception."

Hogan Lovells and the other signatories are taking this initiative under the advisement from RARE, the diversity recruitment specialist that has been helping law firms and others recruit talented BAME candidates into tier-one graduate jobs for 15 years.