Linklaters claims top spot in Stonewall Top Employers list

Linklaters has leapt to first place in Stonewall’s Prime 100 Employers 2024 checklist, whereas final 12 months’s primary Clifford Probability has dropped exterior of the highest ten for the primary time since 2020 and is ranked 14th.

The distinguished LGBTQ+ charity assesses its rankings utilizing its office equality index, a voluntary benchmarking software designed to assist UK-based organisations measure and enhance their LGBTQ+ office inclusion. The index measures key areas of employment coverage and follow resembling employees engagement and the implementation of LGBTQ+-inclusive insurance policies and advantages.

Linklaters has now been ranked within the high 100 for six consecutive years. Its surge to first follows a leap from 53rd to ninth final 12 months, and marks a notable enchancment after the agency hovered across the 50s and the 60s between 2019 and 2022.

In explaining its resolution to award first place to Linklaters, Stonewall praised the ‘plethora of alternatives [for employees] to get entangled in variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives’ on the agency, and highlighted that ‘occasions like bi visibility day and non-binary individuals’s day are celebrated as a part of the annual LGBTQ+ calendar’.

Twelve regulation companies in complete are included within the high 100 rating – up from 11 in final 12 months’s checklist however down from 15 in 2022. Amongst these, Charles Russell Speechlys, has climbed considerably increased within the rankings, whereas   Slaughter and Could  and Shepherd and Wedderburn are notable reentries, having not featured in 2023.

In distinction, Irwin Mitchell, RPC and Womble Bond Dickinson have all moved down the rankings. In the meantime, TLT, which positioned 96th final 12 months; Mills & Reeve, which positioned thirty eighth in 2023 and Leigh Day which positioned twenty fifth final 12 months, haven’t made the 2024 rankings.

The Stonewall checklist has proven the authorized career in an excellent gentle lately. 2024 marks the third time within the final six years {that a} regulation agency has ranked first, with Pinsent Masons taking the highest spot in 2019 and Clifford Probability in 2023.

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk