Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

HLK is committed to building an inclusive and supportive working environment based on mutual respect and trust at all levels.

The firm is one of the earliest signatories of the IP Inclusive Charter for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, confirming our commitment to creating a more diverse and inclusive community for IP professionals to thrive. What’s more, some of our people were fundamental in establishing the Charter scheme.

IP Inclusive is an award-winning IP initiative formed by individuals and organisations from across the intellectual property sector who, by working together, make our community more inclusive, diverse, open and fair.

DiveIn

We have an internal Diversity and Inclusion working group, called DiveIn, with representatives from across the firm. The group’s work revolves around three pillars: increase awareness, provide support and facilitate change in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion within our firm.

Taking action

Here are some highlights of recent DiveIn actions and programmes

Leaders’ Pledges, personal commitments by senior people in the firm, outlining the steps they will take to improve diversity and inclusion at HLK. Other Partners have also made their own personal pledges
Our Head of HR, Sue Antoine, is a member of IP Inclusive’s Advisory Board that guides and supports IP Inclusive’s governing body, IPIM
Piloted a reciprocal mentoring scheme, ahead of a wider rollout
Conducted an internal people survey on D&I
Developed guidelines and advice on using pronouns and titles in the workplace to make it easier for our people to make their forms of address known
Encouraged our people to get involved in IP Inclusive activities and events across the UK
Taken practical steps to encourage more applications to our graduate programme from a wider, more diverse spectrum of universities and colleges
Contributed to rebuilding IP Inclusive’s Careers in Ideas website, to help raise awareness of IP-related careers.

We know we can always do more to break down barriers, and really value and encourage the diverse views of our colleagues in driving positive changes within HLK.

For example, our CEO recently hosted a dinner and discussion for our female partners to share personal experiences of any barriers they have faced as they progressed through their careers. This was an important event for us, to hear first-hand accounts and find ways we can address the ongoing challenges facing women in their career progression.

A dynamic where everyone can thrive

As well as DiveIn’s activities, there’s a dedicated page on our employee portal full of useful ED&I resources and guidance, with links to articles, webinars, videos and podcasts on many topics, as well as our ED&I policy.

By helping our people understand and promote equality, diversity, and inclusion, we’re building a community that celebrates and benefits from individual and shared perspectives and experiences and creating an inclusive working environment in which everyone can fulfil their potential and maximise their contribution.

Our commitment to making HLK an equal, diverse and inclusive environment, combined with our family friendly policies, enhanced maternity leave provision, paternity, shared parental leave and flexible remote working opportunities makes the firm a great place to work!

“Under the Shared Parental Leave scheme, my wife was able to share nine weeks of her precious maternity leave with me. This time off, combined with two weeks’ statutory paternity leave and some holiday, allowed me to take a step back from work for the first three months of my daughter’s life.

It was a really special time and I would recommend SPL in a heartbeat!”

Greg, partner (and dad)