Diversity and inclusion
At Walker Morris, our people are our greatest strength. We’re proud to be an inclusive and diverse firm where everyone can feel included to contribute their unique perspective and succeed together.
Having a talented and diverse workforce, where everyone brings their own unique capabilities, experiences and characteristics to their work, is key to being able to respond to our wide-ranging client base.
We also want to ensure that Walker Morris, is made up of the very best people regardless of their background or start in life, and that is why ensuring that sustainable, D&I that focuses on actions over words is key for us. For example, 68% of our partners were state school educated which is higher than the industry average. We’ve also set public commitments and targets, on areas such as ethnicity, gender, and increasing the visibility of diverse colleagues. One of the keyways we do this is via our active diversity networks:
Our active D&I networks
Women in Leadership – is our strategic working group focused on encouraging and removing barriers for our female solicitors aspiring to achieve partnership. The group has already delivered impactful initiatives including an enhanced maternity offering, a tailor‑made leadership programme, and helps with our International Women’s Day celebrations.
Women in Law Programme – is our leadership programme designed to support and empower our female lawyers as they progress in their careers and take on leadership roles and become a partner within the firm.
Women in Law Pledge – We’ve signed the Women in Law Pledge, a pledge backed by the Law Society, and first created in 2019 to bring gender equality at the forefront of the conversation. By signing the pledge, we’ve committed to setting ourselves high level targets that make a difference for gender equality, and we are proud to publish these on our positive impact report. This pledge ensures that we are publicly committing to:
- Supporting the progression of women into senior roles and keeping them there.
- Setting clear plans and targets around gender equality and diversity within the firm.
We are proud to say we are meeting our pledge, with our Women in Law training program and exceeding our targets of at least 40% of our new partner intake to be female each year, which has resulted in an increase of 3% of female partners.
Gender Pay Gap – We are proud to say that our Gender Pay Gap has reduced from 17% in 2018 down to 8.2% in 2024. Despite this we are confident that men and women are paid equally for performing the same jobs, as pay levels are reviewed using a fair and consistent gender-neutral process.
Proven progress on gender equity
Our commitment to gender equity is delivering tangible results across leadership and pay.
- Since 2023 60% of our internal partnership appointments were female.
- Gender pay gap reduced from 17% to 8.2% (2018-2024)
- Women now score as strongly (or stronger) than the firm overall in our 2025 results.
Horizon – is our LGBTQ+ Network, for colleagues of all identities and allies across Walker Morris. The group brings like minded colleagues together to support or simply learn from one another all whilst champion LGBTQ+ inclusion in meaningful and impactful ways.
Leeds Pride – We are proud to sponsor Leeds Pride each year, taking part in the parade with Horizon taking centre stage, to this inclusive and family day out.
Out Together – Out Together is a Yorkshire based LGBTQ+ charity working to reduce isolation, improve wellbeing and build stronger more connected communities. We are proud to be their Partner in Pride, and regularly host events with them such as afternoon teas, Christmas get togethers, and invitations to our pre-pride party!
Club Out Together – is a Yorkshire based LGBTQ+ professional network, and we regularly host or are keynote speakers at these events, with topics around allyship and why it matters at Walker Morris along with sharing practical steps to build LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Fusion – Fusion is our ethnic and religious diversity network. This network set up to provide an informal networking space, for all as well as a way to help colleagues learn from one another raise awareness and mark celebrations throughout the year.
Events – Fusion takes an active part in helping design and create some of our events and celebrations, such as Eid, Black History Month and South Asian Heritage Month.
Race Equality Matters – We are a proud member of Race Equality Matters (REM), one of the UKs leading organisations and networks for employers to help turn words into actions around race inequality. We regularly take part in initiatives and events from REM such as #MyNameIs and Race Equality Week.
Stronger Together – Is an award winning network aimed to raise the profile of racial diversity inclusion and equity in the professional services sector within the Leeds City Region, this also includes mentorship with partner firms.
N-able – is our network for colleagues with disabilities, long-term health conditions, and neurodiverse needs – a supportive and empowering community, focused on inclusion, understanding, education and positive change.
Disability Confident – As a level 2 Disability Confident Employer, and with mandatory training delivered to our line managers and hiring partners around reasonable adjustments, we aim to remove any barriers to success. We also have a suite of accessible software available to all employees to ensure nothing stops you reaching your full potential.
Visibility and Conversations – Many members of our D&I networks regularly share their own personal stories on our internal intranet not only becoming visible role models, but driving the conversation around diversity and inclusion more broadly.
Our external partners
Walker Morris is involved in or has signed up to several external bodies, which allow us to act as a critical friend and provide guidance and support to our D&I work.
We’re a member of:
- Stonewall Diversity Champions – which looks at our LGBTQ+ inclusion.
- Club OutTogether – a professional LGBTQ+ networking group for those in the Leeds and West Yorkshire Area.
- Race Equality Matters, which looks at our work around Racial Inclusion.
- Stronger Together Leeds –an award-winning network aiming to raise the profile of racial diversity, inclusion and equity in the professional services sector in the Leeds City Region.
- Disability Confident Level 2 – a UK Government Initiative designed to encourage employers to recruit and retain people with disabilities or long-term health conditions.
- Signed the Women in Law Pledge – which is a public commitment to high-level targets to make a difference to gender equality.
- Submitted to the Social Mobility Index – for the first time in 2025 as a way to measure our social mobility work.
- Rare Contextual Recruitment System (CMS) – We use software called RARE, this is software that helps us see people’s full potential regardless of their start in life, and is used by more then a 100 organisations many of whom are Law Firms.
- The Model Diversity Survey or MDS – is a data collection tool we use after a growing number of clients asked us to be a part of it. Simply put, our clients and potential clients can compare us with other law firms based on a number of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) statistics over a number of years. It allows us to be transparent and have open and honest conversations with our clients around D&I at Walker Morris.
Transparency
We know that the legal profession and ourselves have a lot of work to do to reach our D&I goals, but we are proud of the work we have already undertaken and believe that an open and transparent approach to D&I will create a culture where everyone can thrive, this is why we publish our D&I and wider ESG highlights annually in our positive impact report here.