"Our commitment to diversity and inclusion supports our core values and is an integral part of our business strategy. We are constantly working towards empowering each and every one of us in all our offices in Europe, to nurture an environment in which we all feel fairly treated and have the best opportunities to grow and develop our own way, to our full potential." 

— Tomasz Dabrowski, Europe Chief Executive Officer, Dentons

As a polycentric law firm with no single headquarters or dominant culture, inclusion, diversity and belonging are fundamental to who we are at Dentons and integral to our vision and strategy. We know that greater inclusion and diversity promote innovative and sophisticated solutions and service excellence, foster a rich and vibrant workplace, and support positive social change.

At Dentons we pride ourselves on the diversity of our people and the inclusiveness of our culture. We know that attracting and retaining people from all backgrounds is crucial because diverse teams are more creative and better problem solvers. We know that greater inclusion is key to innovation, and that when we bring the two together, we provide better service to our clients.

In Europe, our inclusion and diversity priorities are focused on:

• Leadership and communications: Deepening inclusion and diversity discussions with our leadership and more broadly across all our offices in Europe, and actively leading on this priority.
• Focus on inclusion and belonging: Further embedding behaviors and approaches to ensure an inclusive culture across all our offices in Europe that supports diversity.
• Client collaboration: Increasing collaboration with clients and partners to advance our shared inclusion and diversity objectives including through pro bono initiatives. Sharing best practices and ideas supports our inclusion and diversity plans.

Our commitments

We strive to provide a positive working environment for all of our people and a culture that enables everyone to reach their potential and effectively serve our clients. A top priority of our business strategy is to promote gender equality, expanding development paths and increasing leadership opportunities for women. With that in mind, we have recently adopted two important strategies in Europe:

• Women’s Professional Advancement Strategy - Europe: Our policy sets out a comprehensive strategy to reach a target of 30% women in partnership and key leadership roles by 2025. This includes an agile working policy, mentoring and sponsorship for up and coming female talent, business development support, anti-bias training for partners and HR managers, participation of women in leadership development programs, involvement of a member of the women’s advancement committee in partner admission interviews, and various other steps.
• Dentons Europe Agile Working Policy: We believe that giving our people greater control in how they manage the balance between home and work life is a key component of achieving higher levels of engagement and performance as well as supporting your wellbeing. Enabling our people to work in a more agile way, for example from home or from a client site, is key to successfully managing that balance and our Dentons vision is to make agile working a possibility for everyone.

The Firm is also a signatory of the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the workplace.

Our networks and affinity groups

The Positive Impact Team is in charge of the main body of work related to inclusion and diversity in Dentons Europe, working closely with Dentons Europe CEO and the Europe Board assisted by the Firm’s management team, the Europe Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC), the Europe Women’s Advancement Committee (EWAC) and the Sustainable Governance Committee (SGC) to manage and implement the Inclusion and Diversity strategies for Dentons Europe.

Our senior leadership in Europe helps develop, support, and execute our firm wide strategy and vision of Inclusion and Diversity and ensure that the strategy is meaningful in the context of local culture. Our local Inclusion and Diversity Networks and regional affinity groups help promote inclusion within the firm through awareness-building and engagement.

Dentons Europe’s Positive Impact structures include various committees, regional affinity groups and networks:

• Women’s Advancement Committee (EWAC): A network of senior business service and legal professionals (including regional CEO) tasked with advancing policies and promoting gender advancement initiatives in Europe.
• Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC): A network of senior business service and legal professionals tasked with advancing and promoting inclusion and diversity initiatives in Europe.
• Sustainability and Governance Committee: A network of senior business service and legal professionals tasked to advise the CEO and the Board of Dentons Europe in relation to various issues regarding the sustainable governance of Dentons Europe, including environmental sustainability, human rights, business ethics and modern slavery.
• GLOW Europe: Similar to the networks already existing in other regions, GLOW Europe seeks to promote an environment in which LGBT+ colleagues can be open about themselves. The group includes members of the LGBT+ community as well as allies working together to raise awareness of issues affecting LGBT+ colleagues. GLOW Europe seeks to promote an environment in which LGBT+ colleagues can be open about themselves and also create a greater sense of understanding among non-LGBT colleagues on matters relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Dentons Women : Our networking and professional development group dedicated to supporting our female professionals as they progress through their careers. The network's mission is to act as ambassadors for gender equality, provide support in the implementation of our Women’s Advancement Policy in Europe while fostering an environment that attracts, develops and inspires women business leaders and builds networks with our clients and the communities in which we work. Through business development planning programs, mentoring, networking events and client events, the network creates opportunities for women to reach the top levels of their respective fields and to influence the business of tomorrow.
• Diversity and Inclusion Ambassadors: A network of business service and legal professionals working in their local offices in Europe to implement Dentons Europe I&D commitment. This group coordinates events, promotes awareness (e.g. in relation to women’s empowerment and LGBT+ inclusion) and provides on the ground support in implementing Europe-wide inclusion and diversity programs.

Our community partnerships

Dentons has developed a Positive Impact strategy, which functionally, structurally and thematically integrates our pro bono efforts with our internal inclusion and diversity efforts. The key focus of our pro bono work has been supporting human rights of diverse groups such as women/girls, LGBT+, ethnic or religious minorities and migrants and promoting access to justice. We work closely with organizations such as UN Women and Led by Her to promote equality, support reproductive rights and combat violence against women. Dentons lawyers have worked alongside civil society organizations and taken on important strategic litigation cases to promote LGBT+ rights and promote marriage equality.

Dentons Europe is also a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative – thus confirming our committing to upholding responsible and sustainable business and leadership practices in order to make a positive impact in the communities we serve. As a signatory, Dentons Europe commits to aligning its strategy, culture and operations to the Ten Principles of the Global Compact in the area of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. The Firm also commits to engaging in collaborative projects, which advance the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.

Leading the way

Dentons has signed the Diversity Charters in all European countries where Dentons has offices and at the same time, where Diversity Charters exist. Diversity Charters are voluntary initiatives that provide companies with support and best practices in promoting diversity. As a signatory, Dentons commits to taking action to promote diversity and inclusion and ban discrimination in the workplace.

In December 2020, Dentons co-founded the world’s first Diversity Chamber of Commerce in Romania with the mission to mission is to promote the principles of diversity and inclusion within the local business community and support the development of a more inclusive economy.

The project is the only one of its kind in the world, organized on the model of a typical chamber of commerce and addressing an extensive range of diversity and inclusion topics such as: gender, LGBT+, ethnicity, disabilities and racism. While activities vary from mentoring and coaching, to training, networking and certification - the Chamber will support the Romanian economy by making it easier for minority-owned or managed businesses to connect, compete and grow. Please see our press release here.

Dentons is also a member of the Legal Diversity & Inclusion Alliance in Brussels and a member of Legal LGBT Network FORWARD in the Netherlands.