In February 2024, our LGBTQ+ committee, Alliance, held a half-day workshop to set out goals and strategy for the next 18-24 months. This "Strategy Day" considered our organisational setup and our key ambitions. We resolved that, in all that we do, we would be guided by three key principles: Empower, Enable and Educate. Our manifesto in our work is to "Empower the Next," so that our commitee alliance can help guide Arthur Cox LLP to continue to be a place that empowers the next (and each and every) LGBTQ+ and ally employee, intern, supplier, client or other stakeholder that we come into contact with through our business.
Having determined our strategy, our events and initiatives then sought to align with those goals and ambitions. During 2024, Alliance sought to expand our focus to provide greater recognition and support to minority groups within the LGBTQ+ community. In our committee, we informally call this initiative "Beyond the G". This is a nod to the position of the letter "G" in LGBTQ+, acknowledging that members of the community with other gender and/or sexual identities (such as those who identify as bisexual, trans or queer) may be in need of greater support. As acceptance for gay and lesbian people grows, we feel it is crucial that other groups are not left behind.
That's why we placed the trans community at the heart of our 2024 Pride celebrations. We worked with campaigner and activist Aisling Gannon SC, a parent to a young trans person, on delivering a workshop on the lived experience of Aisling and her son, Steve, during his transition. Aisling's talk emphasised the importance of allyship and the joy and affirmation she and her son have experienced on his transitioning journey.
We also continue to work with TENI, a transgender equality non-profit, in hosting workshops to assist both those who transition in the workplace, and their allies. We both proactively and reactively support LGBTQ+ causes and interests through the firm's wider pro bono work, including supporting in the execution of gender recognition documentation.
"Our manifesto in our work is to "Empower the Next," so that our commitee alliance can help guide Arthur Cox LLP to continue to be a place that empowers the next."
"...we sought to advance an understanding that some of the issues faced by LGBTQ+ couples are the same as those faced by any other couple, while also contextualising the occasional challenges faced in legal practice by LGBTQ+ lawyers."
In addition, we were also proud to host international disputes lawyer David Herlihy. David is a senior partner at A&O Shearman. We invited David to discuss his life and career from his perspective as a gay man. David spoke eloquently and candidly about his experiences as a gay man of growing up in Ireland, as well as marriage, baby loss, adoption, and working in jurisdictions hostile to LGBTQ+ people. In inviting David, we sought to advance an understanding that some of the issues faced by LGBTQ+ couples are the same as those faced by any other couple, while also contextualising the occasional challenges faced in legal practice by LGBTQ+ lawyers around feelings of potential prejudice or unsafety, and how to deal with those.
We also hosted Irish media personality James Kavanagh for an uplifting and poignant event that addressed his life and career. James spoke candidly about his experience as an 'out' media personality, as well as his experiences of bullying as a young person. Other initiatives in 2024 included a weekly newsletter recommending and highlighting LGBTQ+ culture, music, literature and art; as well as a curated community tour of The Museum of Literature Ireland attended by the firm's staff focussing on Dublin's LGBTQ+ literary history.
All of these initiatives have the effect of contextualising LGBTQ+ experience for those who may not have had that experience in their lives to date. This is central to building a community of support and allyship in our business. Alliance aims in all that it does not just to support but to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. This work culminates each year with the firm's "Pride Brunch", a vibrant party marking Dublin Pride, hosted in the firm's Dublin office, that all members of the firm and their families are encouraged to attend.
We have also begun to plan our programme of events for 2025, which includes an expanded "Beyond the G" programme, and a planned return to our University Round Table event in 2025, which brings together representatives from LGBTQ+ societies in all of the major Irish universities in a forum to exchange ideas and perspectives with each other and with us.
Our greatest challenge in our work remains balancing a desire on the part of the committee to deliver the best possible programme in the demanding law-firm environment. We have addressed this through a revised committee structure, which has three sub-committee strands: Pride & Events, Health & Wellbeing, and Outreach. Committee members are encouraged to sign up to at least one subcommittee. Our committee has strongly encouraged participation by committee members in initiatives that are genuinely of interest to them, rather than appointing committee members ad hoc to "random" tasks, thereby navigating the fatigue by ensuring that committee members are enthusiastic about initiatives they work on.
We are proud of the work of Alliance in 2024. Our committee is now part of a four-pillar, centralised EDI firm strategy, encompassing our Gender committee; our Neurodiversity and Disability network; and EMBRACE, our race and ethnicity network. Alliance remains the most active and recognised Arthur Cox EDI network, and its impact is felt in both large-scale events (such as our Pride month) and in smaller ways, such as our submissions to the firm on the adequacy and suitability of health insurance group schemes to support LGBTQ+ staff.
Our impact now extends beyond the firm, and we are proud to support some of our larger clients in the growth and development of their EDI networks by looking to Alliance and its structure as a template.
Originally published by Chambers and Partners DEI Global Report for 2024
This article contains a general summary of developments and is not a complete or definitive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should be obtained where appropriate.
