Bird & Bird Case Study

- DIVERSITY & INCLUSION -

CHALLENGE

Bird & Bird is an international law firm that’s passionate about diversity and inclusion. Its inclusive culture makes the firm and its marketing and business development (MBD) team both innovative and agile. Bird & Bird regularly hosts talks, sessions and events focused on internal and external D&I topics, but the business development team were keen to have a tailored training session to help very specifically with some of the issues they were facing as part of their role as a key conduit between client and lawyer.

WHAT WE DID

Client Talk worked with a trusted partner Doing Diversity Differently to create two training sessions. The sessions focused on the who, why and what of diversity, giving the team a common language. We also created a safe space to discuss issues, such as having difficult conversations and responding to clients about the Bird & Bird diversity journey. In advance of the sessions, we conducted a survey to enable us to tailor the sessions to the very specific needs of the team.

Bird & Bird wanted participants to come away with:

A common language and vocabulary that participants would be happy to use
An understanding of how the MBD team could contribute to change
A deeper understanding of what clients want in relation to diversity and why.

It was also important that we provided an environment where everyone felt supported and able to share their concerns and hopes. In order to achieve this not only did we make sure we understood the very specific aims of the MBD team, but we also worked with the Bids Team to include examples in the session which were firm-specific and which could be used to generate conversations and explore the topic in the context of real-life scenarios.

RESULTS

Participants were able to have conversations around various D&I issues which increased understanding across the team. We provided them with a few tools that could then be taken forward and used to have further conversations internally.

The sessions were well attended and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging are something that needs to be thought about continuously and these sessions were not intended to be “one and done”. They instead provided a moment to reflect on the journey that the firm and the MBD team are on and provided increased confidence and encouragement for the team to continue to explore and work on it.

AT A GLANCE

Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
A common language
Increased team confidence
Making a difference
Understanding aims and concerns
Talking pitches
A continuous journey

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OUR CLIENTS

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WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

RAYA BLAKELEY-GLOVER
GLOBAL HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
BIRD & BIRD

You are both excellent presenters and did a great job of getting the audience involved and driving engagement. Your experience and background help you to provide real-life examples and anecdotes/case studies that resonate with attendees"

I am very pleased to have Client Talk retained as our client listening and feedback provider. The service is professional, well thought through, quick turnaround, and provides valuable data for our business. completely tailored to us.

I've used a variety of providers but Client Talk is, by far, one of the best I've worked with, and will continue to not only use their service but recommend to our clients..

It was great to work with Claire on this project. It was a big project with tight deadlines. Claire was brilliant at project management; came up with great ideas and moderated her sessions with skill.