Eversheds Sutherland Recognized as Inclusion Blueprint Champions for Second Consecutive Year

Eversheds Sutherland is pleased to announce that the firm was named a 2022 Inclusion Blueprint Champion by Diversity Lab, an incubator for innovative ideas and solutions that boost diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. Inclusion Blueprint Champions are recognized for actions that support equitable and inclusive workplaces for lawyers. Eversheds Sutherland was honored in the firm leadership category and for its Real Estate Group in the practice group category. 

"We are honored and humbled to be named Inclusion Blueprint Champions for our leadership for the second consecutive year and for the first time for one of our practice groups," said Mark D. Wasserman, Co-CEO of Eversheds Sutherland. “We are deeply committed to fostering a more diverse, equitable and inclusive legal industry, and it is meaningful to be recognized for our work and progress in this area.” 

"While our goals and focus remain the same with or without outside recognition, we are very pleased to be recognized by Diversity Lab for some of the DEI-related initiatives and projects we have tackled," said Darwin Conner, Chief US Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Eversheds Sutherland. "Inclusion Blueprint is a great example of an industry initiative that helps to drive investment in some of the harder-to-implement structural change that is so important when it comes to achieving equitable outcomes.” 

The 2022 Inclusion Champions had to achieve a score of at least 70 out of 100 across four key indicators: (1) diversity representation based on average or above-average thresholds, (2) year-over-year diversity representation progress, (3) diversity representation tracking, and (4) meaningful inclusion practices and activities.

For the first time this year, the Champions also had to meet a diversity representation threshold or show year-over-year progress for each of the four underrepresented populations assessed by the Inclusion Blueprint, including women lawyers, underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities.

Eversheds Sutherland is also a founding firm of the Move the Needle (MTN) Fund. Founded in partnership with Diversity Lab, MTN is a collaborative effort designed to test innovative initiatives to create a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. By 2025, Eversheds Sutherland (US) has set a goal of increasing its percentage of women partners to 33% and partners from other underrepresented demographic categories — including racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, lawyers with disabilities, and veterans — to 15%.

About Eversheds Sutherland 
As a global top 10 law practice, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal services to a global client base ranging from small and mid-sized businesses to the largest multinationals, acting for 79 of the Fortune 100, 65 of the FTSE 100 and 134 of the Fortune 200.

With more than 3,000 lawyers, Eversheds Sutherland operates in over 70 offices in more than 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. In addition, a network of more than 200 related law firms, including formalized alliances in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa, provide support around the globe.

Eversheds Sutherland provides the full range of legal services, including corporate and M&A; dispute resolution and litigation; energy and infrastructure; finance; human capital and labor law; intellectual property; real estate and construction; and tax. 

Eversheds Sutherland is a global legal practice and comprises two separate legal entities: Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP (headquartered in the UK) and Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP (headquartered in the US), and their respective controlled, managed, affiliated and member firms. The use of the name Eversheds Sutherland is for description purposes only and does not imply that the member firms or their controlled, managed or affiliated entities are in a partnership or are part of a global LLP. For more information, visit eversheds-sutherland.com.