Maddocks receives Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation

Maddocks has been an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality every year since 2004. The Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation is a voluntary leading-practice recognition program designed to encourage, recognise and promote organisations' active commitment to achieving gender equality in Australian workplaces.

This year, 120 Australian organisations received the citation.

Maddocks CEO David Newman said the firm was proud to receive this recognition once again.

‘The WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality program has been really important for us as a way of providing guidance and benchmarking to continue to build our diversity and inclusion strategy for women and all our staff who identify as women,’ David said.

‘Our gender equality journey can be traced back to 1997 when we launched the Maddocks Women group to assist women working at Maddocks to develop their careers and over that quarter of a century our approach has continued to evolve and strengthen our commitment to building an inclusive environment for all our people.’

Through the firm’s commitment to the Employer of Choice for Gender Equality process for almost 20 years, Maddocks has been a leader in the legal profession in relation to gender equality, including setting targets in 2014 for female representation in the firm’s partnership, the appointment of a Diversity and Inclusion Manager in 2015 and a commitment to achieving 40/40/20 on the firm’s Board by 2025.

David Newman said the firm’s approach has provided great career opportunities for all of its people and in turn has helped fuel the growth of the firm.

‘It is absolutely no coincidence that the firm has grown enormously over the past 25 years in line with the greater diversity and inclusivity of the firm,’ he said.

‘When you are able to engage all of your people you are then able to access the variety of their experiences, which has an impact on how we work with our clients and how we collaborate with each other.’

Maddocks partner and chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Strategy Committee, Alicia Albury, said the evolution of the WGEA guidelines has played an important role in the firm’s approach to diversity and inclusion.

‘Over the past 20 years WGEA has continued to lift the bar when it comes to what organisations should be doing to achieve gender equality and this has proven to be a valuable way for our firm to continue to test whether it is doing all we can to empower women,’ Alicia said.

‘This is not a tick-the-box exercise. It is a way for us to benchmark ourselves in a meaningful way with what our peers are doing.’

Maddocks Senior Manager – Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing, Marita Pascoe, said retaining the citation was significant considering the challenges of the past two years.

‘The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that all organisations have had to be incredibly diligent in making sure all of their people are looked after equally despite not being in the office full time,’ Marita said.

‘At Maddocks, we have made sure that we have been in contact with all of our people individually to ensure they remain safe and well but we have also continued to examine our approach to diversity and inclusion and how we can continue to do better.

‘One area is ensuring that policies and programs we have work for all genders. For example, we are focusing on making sure our men and rainbow families are utilising their parental leave entitlements after the arrival of a new member to their family. It also means normalising flexible work, beyond work from home, for all genders, family types and individual circumstances.’

The full list of organisations to receive the latest WGEA Employer of Choice for Gender Equality citation is available from the WGEA website.

About Maddocks

Maddocks is a proudly independent Australian law firm that works closely with corporations, businesses and governments throughout Australia and internationally. We advise national and international clients across the education, government, healthcare, infrastructure and technology sectors, from our Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney offices. Our specialist expertise includes dispute resolution and litigation, employment and safety, financial services, franchising and insolvency.