Diversity:

Our team represents a diverse blend of backgrounds, personal circumstances, and personalities, which contribute to the diversity and creativity of the solutions we provide.

We see this as a crucial strength that allows us to serve our clients better and cultivate a supportive and enjoyable work environment. By combining unique life experiences, diverse perspectives, and varied thinking and approaches, we all grow and deliver greater value to our clients and one another.

For Ashfords, building an inclusive workplace comes from championing equality, diversity & inclusion. It means:

• Living our values so that we seek out, respect and welcome difference.
• Being curious and open to new approaches.
• Each of us looking always at how we can improve the accessibility and inclusivity of what we do and how we do it.
• Reviewing and creating new practices that enable everyone working at Ashfords to be comfortable and to flourish.
• Ensuring we can all be successful whatever our background, personal circumstances or personality.

Our activities to improve diversity and inclusion at the firm include:

• Having an active diversity group, helping to promote and embed diversity and inclusion across the business, through a programme of education and celebration around for example different faiths and backgrounds, to help raise awareness and understanding and to drive change where needed.
• Cross firm networking and support groups: to facilitate networking and support amongst particular groups – for example, our working carers group. Also drawing on the experiences of those within our various groups to improve what we do and how we do it.
• Diversity and awareness training: including for example menopause awareness and 1:1 support clinics, mandatory unconscious bias training and reverse mentoring.
• Pathways to law: working to widen access to careers in the legal sector through our apprenticeship schemes and work experience programmes, and through our partnerships with the Social Mobility Foundation, the Bristol Future Talent Partnership and with the University of Exeter and the Sutton Trust.
• Monitoring and review: We track our progress through our annual gender pay gap and diversity reporting and use the findings to inform future strategies and actions to improve performance

Power of Three initiative

We currently have a three-year programme supporting three charities that link with the firm’s sector expertise, locations and experience. Our aim is to build strong relationships with the charities we support and develop a long-term programme of fundraising and volunteering activity.

The charities we support are:

• St Mungo’s – who work to prevent homelessness and support people at every step of their recovery from homelessness.
• The Ocean Conservation Trust – a global ocean conservation charity working towards a vision of healthy oceans.
• The Trussell Trust – who support a nationwide network of food banks to provide emergency food and support.

DIVERSITY REPORT

Here is a link to our diversity statistical report from 2025: https://www.ashfords.co.uk/media/ro1dmynb/ashfords-diversity-report-2025.pdf