Linklaters launches Ally programme

Linklaters launched its Ally programme earlier this month – the firm’s first LGBT-focused network supporting minority groups.

The Ally programme's initial focus is on straight members of Linklaters doing work to ensure that all people in the LGBT community have equality with their straight colleagues and peers. As the programme expands, it is expected that it will go on to champion women’s rights and the rights of disabled people, with lawyers from all levels of seniority within the firm working to educate themselves, speak up and support equality in various ways.

The initiative is sponsored by Nicola Rabson, the head of Linklaters’ UK employment and incentives practice who was named by diversity organisation OUTstanding as one of the business world’s top 20 LGBT allies (which also featured Slaughter and May's senior partner, Chris Saul). Rabson said: "Our Ally programme will enable individuals within Linklaters to make a positive impact on their working environment, for their own and for their co-workers’ benefit. It will engender humanity into our business-focused working lives where sometimes the financials, objectives, strategies and mission statements can lead us to forget that we are responsible for where we work, both individually and collectively. I am confident that our Ally programme, and the sentiment that we bring with it, will be a sign to everyone that Linklaters is a place where people can truly be themselves."