Linklaters has leapt to first place in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers 2024 list, while last year’s number one Clifford Chance has dropped outside of the top ten for the first time since 2020 and is ranked 14th.
The prominent LGBTQ+ charity assesses its rankings using its workplace equality index, a voluntary benchmarking tool designed to help UK-based organisations measure and improve their LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion. The index measures key areas of employment policy and practice such as staff engagement and the implementation of LGBTQ+-inclusive policies and benefits.
Linklaters has now been ranked in the top 100 for six consecutive years. Its surge to first follows a leap from 53rd to ninth last year, and marks a notable improvement after the firm hovered around the 50s and the 60s between 2019 and 2022.
In explaining its decision to award first place to Linklaters, Stonewall praised the ‘plethora of opportunities [for employees] to get involved in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives’ at the firm, and highlighted that ‘events like bi visibility day and non-binary people’s day are celebrated as part of the annual LGBTQ+ calendar’.
Twelve law firms in total are included in the top 100 ranking – up from 11 in last year’s list but down from 15 in 2022. Among those, Charles Russell Speechlys, has climbed significantly higher in the rankings, while Slaughter and May and Shepherd and Wedderburn are notable reentries, having not featured in 2023.
In contrast, Irwin Mitchell, RPC and Womble Bond Dickinson have all moved down the rankings. Meanwhile, TLT, which placed 96th last year; Mills & Reeve, which placed 38th in 2023 and Leigh Day which placed 25th last year, have not made the 2024 rankings.
The Stonewall list has shown the legal profession in a good light in recent years. 2024 marks the third time in the last six years that a law firm has ranked first, with Pinsent Masons taking the top spot in 2019 and Clifford Chance in 2023.