Diversity, equality and inclusion

Diversity in Wiersholm

At Wiersholm, we continually strive to create a diverse workplace reflecting the diversity of the world that we serve. Our work on diversity is well rooted in our values.

We view diversity as a factor of strength and as part of our vision of strategy and success. We strive to recruit and retain employees with different religions, ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender expressions, ages and degrees of ability.

Our clients evolve and face new challenges. We believe that the breadth of knowledge, diverse backgrounds and unique experiences that each of our employees brings to the firm allow us to deliver tailormade services to a broad palette of clients and to consolidate a strong organisational culture. Consequently, we work hard to recruit, advance, retain and promote people with minority backgrounds.

Every year, we carry out an employee satisfaction survey to keep our finger on the company’s pulse and to obtain input on how we may evolve and improve as an employer. The survey provides invaluable feedback from our team members, enabling us to introduce new initiatives and refine existing ones as necessary. The 2023 survey results indicated that our employees recognise and appreciate the company’s commitment to diversity and equality through tangible actions. Furthermore, they feel empowered to express their true selves in the workplace.

Inclusive Work Environment

Wiersholm harbors several of the legal industry’s most accomplished professionals, with an excellent understanding of the commercial stakes and potentials. The complexity of our clients’ demands sharpens the way we combine our legal expertise, industry insight, professional skills and strong team dynamics to tailor the optimal solution for our clients.

People are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to facilitating an inclusive working environment in which employees can thrive and develop both professionally and socially.

As our working environment is made up of a diverse group of people, we organize activities and initiatives that reflect our workplace diversity. Among other things, our initiatives include after-work socialisation, football and golf tournaments, seminars and educational courses, group workouts, which all contribute to making Wiersholm a rewarding place to work.

Trust is embedded in our collaborative workplace culture. We trust and respect one another to do our best every day; we listen to each other and provide each other with valuable feedback to enhance our insights into the profession, each other, and ourselves.

The inclusive culture at work was acknowledged in our work environment survey, as the vast majority of our employees confirmed that

Wiersholm is an accommodating and inclusive place to work. Two defining aspects, which substantiate our inclusive culture, are workplace diversity and career development.

Commemorative Days and Events

Every year, we mark anniversaries that are important to us and in recent years we have had a particular focus on Women’s Day, Pride and World Mental Health Day. The purpose of our internal celebrations is to contribute to increased awareness and expertise on the theme that each anniversary focuses on.

In connection with Women’s Day, in recent years we have invited employees to lectures and/or internal panel discussions on diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the company.

In June, we celebrate Pride. As an employer, we want to create an environment where everyone can be themselves at work. To love is a human right. That’s why we’re celebrating the diversity of love together with our fellow human beings in Wiersholm, the legal profession, business and society at large.

To mark World Pride Day, in recent years we have invited employees to lectures focusing on mental health, including from Jimmy Westerheim from The Human Aspect.

Mino.Jur

Wiersholm is a proud and long-term partner of Mino.Jur, a student organisation for law students in Bergen and Oslo with minority background. The organisation works to establish networks and contacts between minorities and to contribute to professional development.

As a partner, we host several seminars and events together with Mino.Jur to strengthen the legal minority community. Among several initiatives, we have a mentoring scheme, enabling law students with a minority background to team up with different mentors in Wiersholm to get guidance and a conversation partner with which to discuss career and challenges in the legal profession. We also contribute on the annual “Mino-Jur- days”. We believe this collaboration plays an important role in our efforts to attract more talent from minority backgrounds.

Equality Check

In 2020, the Bar Association’s diversity committee entered into a collaboration with the tool Equality Check to improve knowledge about diversity in the industry.

Equality Check is a digital platform where employees can anonymously evaluate their workplace based on criteria related to, among other things, inclusive culture, equal opportunities, and whether management prioritizes diversity. Wiersholm has encouraged all employees to participate, so we can map out how we can improve further. The results show that Wiersholm scored higher than the industry in general on Equality Check – especially when it comes to inclusive culture, that management prioritizes diversity, and that employees do not experience unwanted sexual attention at the workplace.

You can read more about Equality Check and their work here.

Annual report

In connection with the annual report, we make a separate statement for our work to promote equality and prevent discrimination, based on gender, leave for birth or adoption, ethnicity, belief, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The work is documented and takes place in collaboration with representatives of the employees.

 

04_arrow-rOur equality statement for 2022 (in Norwegian)

Status Wiersholm

  • Languages
    18
  • Countries represented
    14
  • Women/men
    190/160
  • Female partners
    23%
  • Proportion of women in partner admissions in the last 3 years
    50%
  • Feel they can be themselves at work
    97%