Celebrating difference
Our approach and longstanding deep commitment to diversity and inclusion has been, and will always be, a clear and significant aspect of the firm’s culture and a key contributor to our enduring success.
However, we must never become complacent about this quality, which sets us apart from firms that promote diversity and inclusion as a superficial or passing trend. For this reason, the partners believe it is important to have a statement that describes why and how we nurture a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging and where individuality is respected, valued and harnessed, strengthening the firm’s overall point of difference in the market.
We are committed to providing our people with equality of opportunity in realising their professional and personal aspirations, while providing our clients with the very best outcomes. This involves genuine commitment to merit based appointment and career progression. It requires us to continue to foster an environment where people are comfortable bringing their whole selves to work, allowing them to perform at their best.
Our clients come to us with their most complex legal problems, recognising the value of innovative thinking that is the hallmark of Arnold Bloch Leibler. The level and quality of creativity we offer is a distinct by product of our approach to diversity and inclusion.
Mark Leibler AC
Senior Partner
Henry Lanzer AM
Managing Partner
As a firm, we pride ourselves on celebrating diversity and bringing our whole selves to work. We aim to support and empower individuals from minorities or marginalised backgrounds to ensure they have the resources and support they need for success.
Inclusion & unconscious bias
A cultural hallmark of Arnold Bloch Leibler is our commitment to community inclusion and human rights principles. This has been reflected through an enduring commitment over many decades to public interest law initiatives, providing extensive advice, advocacy and support for groups in our society who are impacted by unconscious bias.
Based on our firm culture, principles and accumulated experiences and expertise, we strive for an inclusive work environment where we truly value the individual and group differences within our workforce.
Our internal inclusion and unconscious bias initiatives include the following:
Policy information and education
Providing clarity on our expectations of workplace behaviour in the context of Equal Employment Opportunity, Anti-discrimination, Harassment and Bullying and Gender Equality with contemporary policies and regular training to educate our people on the importance of compliance.
Cultural awareness training
Promoting an understanding of other cultures and behavioural preferences, particularly Indigenous cross-cultural awareness training. Unconscious bias and inclusive leadership training – for those involved in recruitment in particular, this training involves building on our collective understanding of unconscious bias and our reactions to difference in the workplace, and the impact these have on decision-making.
Gender
Arnold Bloch Leibler is committed to engaging in community outreach with a gendered focus, including through supporting the advancement of our high performing women. With initiatives like flexible work practices, mentoring and gender pay equity, we are continuing to take practical steps to achieve this. We seek to provide equal career opportunity for everyone, encouraging our women to progress in their careers and ensuring appointments at every level within the firm are merit based.
Women's Coffee Roulette
We run a ‘Coffee Roulette’ program, through which graduates and lawyers are provided opportunities to meet with senior female role models within the firm over an informal coffee. This program is intended to support the progress of our early career female lawyers, as well as strengthen female networks within the firm and promote long-term mentorship.
Pathways to Politics
Pathways to Politics, an initiative of the Trawalla Foundation, the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia and the University of Melbourne (amongst other partner universities), aims to address the underrepresentation of women in Australian politics. We are providing a series of “skills building” seminars for alumni and current participants of Pathways to Politics, which leverage off our subject-matter expertise in areas such as Defamation, Citizenship, Asset Protection, and Bullying & Sexual Harassment. All staff are encouraged to volunteer and get involved in this program.
ABL Women's Network
The Women’s Network is an initiative that is open to all staff firm-wide, led by a number of female staff and partners from across the firm’s Melbourne and Sydney offices. The network was introduced to facilitate career progression, solidarity, awareness, collaboration and mentorship among women at ABL, and builds upon the existing networks across the firm and the Coffee Roulette program and our involvement in Pathways to Politics.
LGBTIQA+
All members of the LGBTIQA+ community are welcomed and supported at ABL. We recognise that fostering a safe and inclusive environment for the LGBTIQA+ community enhances the productivity, job satisfaction and tenure of our employees.
Our workplace is an inclusive, welcoming environment and safe space for people in the community to feel comfortable and secure in being themselves.
ABL has a range of initiatives to support and celebrate our LGBTIQA+ employees and create a workplace of allies. This includes LGBTIQA+ training and education, and our dedicated Pride Committee which coordinates internal and external events. ABL Pride is a diverse and inclusive group that represents a cross-section of our firm.
ABL has shown public support for the LGBTIQA+ community through advocacy for advancement of legal rights, for example our public statement supporting marriage equality and our pro-bono work for Australian Marriage Equality.
We have fostered an environment at ABL where it is safe for all leaders of the firm to genuinely commit to greater diversity at all levels and support the retention and promotion of excellent female lawyers.
Reconciliation & Indigenous empowerment
Having been the first law firm to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan in 2008, we have long been a beacon to others on the topic of reconciliation and the empowerment of Indigenous people in Australia. Our reconciliation and Indigenous empowerment efforts and activities are recognised and valued by our partners, clients and the firm overall as a central element of what we do.
Arnold Bloch Leibler immediately and publicly accepted the invitation contained in the Uluru Statement from the Heart to walk together with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a movement of the Australian people for a better future. And in 2019, our Reconciliation Action Plan Committee was renamed the Arnold Bloch Leibler Indigenous Solidarity Network (AISN).
In November 2021, ABL published its Indigenous Solidarity Statement of Commitment. The Statement of Commitment is intended to capture the responsibilities and obligations of the firm’s Partners and staff in support of Indigenous self-determination.
In solidarity
For nearly 30 years, Arnold Bloch Leibler has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, organisations and individuals, often pro bono, on matters and issues that go to the heart of their resolve to achieve Indigenous led self-determination.
Arnold Bloch Leibler acknowledges and pays respect to the Traditional Custodians of country all over Australia. We acknowledge and respect the fact that many Traditional Custodians maintain their sovereignty, which has never been ceded. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous people in their continuing struggles for justice.
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