Appleyard Lees is committed to being a fair and equal firm. We recruit individuals based on merit and talent, and we strive to treat everyone with fairness and respect. Our guiding principle is to recruit and retain the best people which we achieve at least in part, by our inclusive and open culture.
For us, diversity is not just a box-ticking exercise, it is a core value. A diverse team brings richness of ideas and perspectives, helping us to be more creative, adaptable and effective. This benefits both our people and our clients; we offer varied qualification and career progression paths for our staff, and we tailor our advice and services to meet the unique needs of each client.
Ensuring that everyone at Appleyard Lees feels included and valued in the firm is essential. The significant changes in working environments brought about by the global pandemic have made this more important than ever. We have a range of inclusion initiatives in place because we want all our staff, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, background or sexual orientation to feel that they belong and can be themselves at work.
We believe that wellbeing is essential to a happy, healthy, and productive workplace. We’re committed to supporting our people both professionally and personally, and we offer a range of resources to help maintain physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.
Our wellbeing support includes:
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP): confidential support available 24/7, offering expert advice, counselling, and resources for a wide range of personal and work-related issues
- Mental health first aiders: trained colleagues available to offer initial support and guidance, helping to foster a culture of openness around mental health
- Healthcare cash plan: Helping cover every day healthcare costs such as dental, optical, and physiotherapy treatments
- Work-life balance: we promote balance through a host of family-friendly and flexible working policies, designed to support different life stages and personal circumstances
- Inclusive culture: a supportive environment where everyone is encouraged to be themselves and feel valued
- Flexible working options: designed to help balance work and personal life
- Wellbeing initiatives: regular activities, events, and resources focused on mental health, physical wellness, and social connection.
We’re always looking for ways to enhance our wellbeing offering, because we know that when our people thrive, so does our firm.
We are continually looking at ways we can become a more diverse firm and a more inclusive workplace, whether that be reviewing our approach to recruitment or looking at ways we can support initiatives that encourage underrepresented groups to study STEM subjects.
Here are some of the things we are already doing to improve ED&I at Appleyard Lees:
- We are a member of, and donor to, IP Inclusive and have signed the IP Inclusive Charter for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. All our people are encouraged to attend IP Inclusive’s events and to get involved with their activities
- Managing Partner Bobby Smithson is part of the IP Inclusive Senior Leaders’ Diversity Think Tank. Bobby is one of the first signatories to the Senior Leaders’ Pledge
- Partner David Clark and HR Director Yvonne Sanderson have signed Senior Leaders’ Pledges
- Partner Parminder Lally jointly led a team to create and launch IP Inclusive’s Careers in Ideas initiative, an outreach campaign aimed at raising awareness of IP-related careers in order to widen the pool of people from which the IP profession recruits. She also features in IP Inclusive’s “Ask me Anything” video series that provides answers to questions many people want to ask but are afraid to do so in case it causes offence, and the series of talks on “Allies and Intersectionality”
- Partner Parminder Lally was named a ‘Diversity Champion’ by WIPR Diversity in 2023
- We have an internal ED&I focus group that includes attorneys, trainees and human resources professionals, which is tasked to collate and present ideas for improving D&I
- We support the AIPLA’s Women in IP group and host events as part of their annual global networking event
- We host Women in IP events, including virtual events during the pandemic
- We look at how we can use more gender-neutral and inclusive language in our internal and external communications
- We regularly undertake reviews of our HR policies and internal processes with diversity, equality and inclusion in mind.
