Funny thing about promises of transparency: people will notice gaps in the record. Freshfields talked a big game on their commitment to DEI, but it looks like there’s a proverbial minute missing from the footage.
The firm set some huge diversity goals for this side of the pond, things like having at least 20 percent of new partners be racially or ethnically diverse and at least 30 percent of their senior business service staff be the same. Since then, Trump happened; it seems like Freshfields has had a change of heart. Roll On Friday has coverage:
RollOnFriday has uncovered discrepancies in Freshfields’ diversity and inclusion data which cast doubt on its claims about its DEI achievements.
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The firm binned its US diversity targets[.] When asked about the move by a press which had dutifully reported the firm’s five year plan at its launch, allowing Freshfields to reap the attendant publicity benefits, it would not answer directly. Instead, a source close to the firm said it had “retired” its US specific targets “as they had been met or exceeded”.
That seems to be the lawyerly way of saying “we don’t care about that anymore”. RollonFriday did the perfectly reasonable journalistic followup of asking if Freshfields can accurately say the goals have been met or exceeded when data from 2024 showed that the firm was behind. The firm responded that their information wasn’t up to date, but that’s a bit glib considering any hope of more up-to-date DEI information was scrubbed from their website months ago. While Freshfields’ 5 year diversity plan would put their diversity deadline in 2026, it is unlikely that the firm is going to double down on or advance their diversity under this administration. It isn’t like they’re Davis Wright Tremaine or anything.
EXCLUSIVE Doubt cast on Freshfields’ DEI claims [Roll On Friday]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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