News
Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) has joined more than 90 leading law firms across the U.S., UK, and Canada to partner with Diversity Lab, demonstrating the firm's continued and unwavering commitment to fostering a culture of inclusion and support for people with disabilities.
In addition, the firm is launching a new U.S.-based Differently Abled affinity group. This group will help lead those efforts to increase opportunities and promote inclusion for those with disabilities.
“We are enormously excited to formalize and launch our affinity group Differently Abled in 2024. We are committed to fostering awareness and positive change around visible and non-visible disability for our colleagues and communities. Holding space for each other to share, educate, learn, support, and develop is central to our vision and we are truly looking forward to collaborating with everyone who will join this conversation and our efforts. There is vast scope to do great things and we cannot wait to see how this will impact our workplace, our families, and our communities,” said Nicola Cannon, Womble Real Estate Lease Administrator and Chair of the Differently Abled affinity group.
“We are enormously excited to formalize and launch our affinity group Differently Abled in 2024. We are committed to fostering awareness and positive change around visible and non-visible disability for our colleagues and communities. Holding space for each other to share, educate, learn, support, and develop is central to our vision and we are truly looking forward to collaborating with everyone who will join this conversation and our efforts. There is vast scope to do great things and we cannot wait to see how this will impact our workplace, our families, and our communities."
Nicola Cannon, Chair of the Differently Abled Affinity Group and Real Estate Lease Administrator, Womble Bond Dickinson
Partnering firms have committed to implementing various actions listed in Diversity Lab's recently launched Disability Inclusion Commitments, which outline 10 actions that organizations should take to increase inclusion and equitable access to opportunities for disabled individuals in the legal profession.
Womble has committed to "increasing opportunities to hire disabled people" as part of its collaboration with Diversity Lab, which comes after the firm achieved Mansfield Rule 6.0 Certification Plus status in October. Administered by Diversity Lab, the Mansfield Rule aims to ensure that firms have considered at least 30 per cent women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities for opportunities including leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitches, and senior lateral positions.
The Diversity Lab is facilitating quarterly webinars to raise awareness and educate more than 1,000 leaders from Mansfield law firms and legal departments on topics such as understanding disability language, definitions, and self-identification; removing physical and digital barriers to accessibility; establishing employee resource groups; and supporting neurodiversity.
