Apply now!Diversity at RPC
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) is one of RPC's key priorities following under their Responsible Business focus. The firm's aims for all employees at RPC to feel valued, respected and free to be their authentic selves. Great minds do not all think alike and their teams seek to celebrate difference. Their culture is built on values of trust and respect. As a firm they want their workplace to be one where everyone feels they can bring their whole self to work, so they can succeed professionally and contribute fully to life at RPC
Hearing from their people and understanding the key areas that they would like the firm to focus on is fundamental in coordinating their DEIB activity and strategy. To ensure they are giving everyone the opportunity to engage, and share their thoughts and experiences, the firm has eight DEIB employee resource groups called ‘Communities’. Their DEIB Communities provide an open forum whereby individuals who are passionate about particular areas of DEIB can come together to share ideas and experiences. The eight Communities are: Belief (faith), Enable (disability), Ethnicity, Families, Gender, Mental Health, RAIN (LGBTQ+) and Social Mobility. Each Community is open to everyone at the firm, across all four offices and meet regularly throughout the year with the firm's Responsible Business team to ensure they are marking key awareness?raising days and themes that are important to the people at RPC. To ensure that the firm is having consistent, open and honest conversations, and that they have transparent communication between the Communities and Senior Leadership, each of the Communities has a Partner Sponsor and a board representative who help facilitate conversations across the business, act as champions and support the Responsible Business team in taking an intersectional approach to the firm's DEIB activity. Recent examples of the firm's DEIB events and initiatives include; smoothie bike race challenge and relaxing sound baths for Mental health Awareness Week, secondary school mentoring programmes in lower socio-economic areas of London and Bristol, Charity sponsorship and support in London and Bristol Pride parades, client collaboration for International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Bring your child to work day, authentic food events for religious holidays and celebrations, and an inspirational speaker event for South Asian Heritage Month.
RPC works with a number of different organisations, such as Rare, Aspiring Solicitors and Bright Network, to ensure they are consistently reaching and considering a more diverse range of candidates through their application and recruitment processes. Since 2015, the firm have used Rare’s contextualised recruitment tool to help them gain access to more diverse candidates for their apprentice and training contract opportunities. They have also worked with Aspiring Solicitors (AS) since 2018 and were founding members of the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation. Aspiring Solicitors works to increase diversity in the legal profession through workshops and programmes aimed at students from underrepresented backgrounds. The firm applies an ‘anonymous’ recruitment approach within their Early Talent team so that personal background and demographics details are removed for all interviewers prior to assessment to help ensure objectivity and remove any bias within their processes.
For the past four years, RPC have partnered with the 10,000 Interns Foundation on their 10,000 Black Interns Programme to welcome a total of 18 interns within their legal and business services teams. The programme aims to champion underrepresented talent and promote equity of opportunity. RPC helps meet the mission of offering students and graduates paid internship opportunities across a range of UK industries.
The firm also rolls out a number of DEIB training programmes throughout the year, including their Inclusive Leadership training, Respect at Work, Mission Include, and wellbeing support training for managers through Unmind.
The firm previously committed to a target of 30% women in the Partnership which was successfully met in 2022. They currently have 40% women on their Partnership Executive Board and 75% women on their Directors’ Executive Committee. RPC have now set a new objective to reach gender parity in the Partnership as soon as possible. The board continue to work with the firm's DEIB Gender Community, People team and senior leaders across the business to drive progress in this space and continue to embed the principles of RPC’s Gender Balance Plan.
They were ranked 26th in the 2024 UK Social Mobility Employer Index, Gold Award 2024 in the Stonewall LGBTQ+ Inclusive Employer index, Disability Confident Level 2, and won Responsible Business of the Year at the Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2024. The awards and submissions celebrate the firm's overall alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a handful of successes across the recent year as well as recognising the firm's impactful work with clients, from advisory support to training and combined awareness events.
Find out more about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging at RPC in their Responsible Business Report 2025.
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