Case Study: Building a Speak Up Culture in a Global Law Firm
We partnered with a global law firm to deliver advanced, regulation-aligned leadership training on sexual harassment prevention and speak up culture. Co-created and highly tailored, the programme equipped senior leaders with practical skills and confidence, achieving strong engagement and a marked shift from theoretical understanding to practical application.
When a global law firm set out to strengthen its approach to sexual harassment prevention and embed a genuine speak up culture, it did so proactively – not in response to crisis, but as a reflection of its commitment to culture and leadership accountability.
After an earlier provider failed to deliver a programme that resonated with senior partners and leaders, the firm appointed Mix Diversity to design and deliver a more practical, credible and regulation-aligned solution.
The result was a highly tailored, senior-level programme completed by 92% of leaders, widely regarded as practical, challenging and valuable. The collaboration has since led to discussions about an international rollout.
Background
The client is a global law firm operating in a highly regulated professional services environment. As a partnership-led organisation, it includes senior partners, associates and business services leaders, all operating within a culture of intellectual rigour and debate.
Before engaging Mix, the firm had already taken meaningful steps. Leaders had completed e-learning on sexual harassment and bullying, internal policies were in place, and multiple reporting routes – including a third-party anonymous line – were available.
This initiative was not prompted by a major incident. The investment was made because the firm cared deeply about its culture and wanted to equip leaders properly to prevent harassment and respond appropriately if disclosures occurred.
However, the first training provider failed to meet expectations. The programme was perceived as insufficiently practical and not suited to partners and very senior associates.
The firm reopened the tender process, seeking a partner capable of engaging senior lawyers in nuanced, credible and action-focused work. That’s where Mix stepped in.
The Challenge
The firm’s goals were ambitious. Leaders needed to move beyond theoretical understanding and into confident, practical application. By the end of the programme, participants were expected to:
- Recognise sexual harassment and sexual misconduct, including grey areas such as “banter”
- Identify individuals at risk and conduct team-level risk assessments
- Take preventative steps to reduce harassment risk
- Respond compassionately and appropriately to disclosures
- Challenge inappropriate behaviour across protected characteristics
- Be crystal clear on legislative and regulatory requirements
- Take ownership of policy rather than defaulting immediately to HR
The firm wanted leaders not only to know the law, but to feel equipped and accountable to act.
“Excellent course and has equipped me to raise awareness with team.”
Senior Partner
Preventing Sexual Harassment
Establish a respectful, inclusive, and safe work environment for everyone.
Credible Facilitation for a Senior Legal Audience
Senior partners and lawyers expect to be challenged by someone who understands both the substance of the law and the realities of leadership at their level.
The firm was clear – they did not want a facilitator who was simply a subject matter expert in theory. They wanted someone who understood regulatory and legislative frameworks, but who also brought senior leadership experience – including a board-level perspective – and felt comfortable operating in a room of highly analytical, confident professionals.
The programme was co-created with the firm’s business school and learning specialists, ensuring alignment with their internal standards. But successful delivery was completely dependent on having facilitators who could hold their own in what can sometimes be a combative, debate-driven environment; engaging lawyers on equal footing while keeping the focus firmly on practical action.
“Fantastic session on an area often not willing to be spoken about.”
Senior Partner
Train Leaders For Reality
Equip leaders to act, challenge and respond – effectively, compassionately and proactively.
Our Approach
The programme was built on two core pillars. First, it reflected the evolving legislative landscape, including the Worker Protection Act, changes to the Equality Act and enhanced regulatory expectations from the SRA in relation to sexual misconduct.
Second, it needed to be grounded firmly in the firm’s own harassment, bullying and speak up policies.
Rather than treating these as separate compliance requirements, Mix designed a programme that brought legislation, regulation and internal policy together in a coherent way – enabling leaders not only to understand their obligations, but to apply them confidently and consistently in practice.
“Collaborating with Mix Diversity has been an extraordinary experience, defined by their deep expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion and their profound understanding of the professional services sector”.
Curriculum Manager
Because leaders had already completed e-learning, and due to the nature of their profession, the programme stripped out basic definitions. The assumption was that participants already understood what sexual harassment was. The focus was, instead, on complexity, nuance and judgement.
Rather than presenting legislation abstractly, Mix brought it to life through real employment tribunal case studies involving law firms. This made the risks tangible and relevant – these were not hypothetical scenarios; they were examples from within the legal profession.
A three-hour, expert-led, in-person workshop was designed. It was structured in two parts:
- The first focused on building a speak up culture aligned to legislative changes and regulatory expectations.
- The second concentrated specifically on sexual harassment prevention and response. Scenarios included responding to disclosures, maintaining impartiality, and handling complex situations involving high-value clients.
Why it Worked
Sessions intentionally mixed seniority levels – from managing partners to team leaders and functional managers – and anonymous polling surfaced real attitudes to harassment. For some senior leaders, this visibility was eye-opening.
To ensure the programme felt fully integrated rather than externally imposed, Mix aligned the visual style, tone and structure with the firm’s existing in-house business school.
Everything was designed to match the firm’s internal standards and branding, helping reinforce credibility and consistency. We also created a comprehensive resource guide (around 50 pages) to support the workshop, giving leaders something practical to refer back to long after the session. It meant the learning didn’t just stop on the day, but became part of their ongoing leadership approach.
“This partnership felt like a seamless extension of our team”.
Curriculum Manager
Outcomes and Impact
“What stood out most was Mix’s highly collaborative approach – working closely with us at every stage, listening to our unique challenges, and co-creating tailored solutions that aligned perfectly with our goals”.
Curriculum Manager
The design process was collaborative and rigorous. Mix worked closely with the firm’s business school, learning and development team, head of policy and senior partners. A pilot was conducted, with structured QR-code feedback collected individually before group discussion to prevent dominant voices influencing responses
- Approximately 92% of leaders completed the programme — a significant commitment in a firm where senior time carries substantial financial value.
- Feedback from 48 senior leaders demonstrated strong engagement and impact. The programme received an average overall rating of 8.8 out of 10, with participants reporting high levels of confidence across all core learning objectives.
- Leaders rated their ability to recognise sexual harassment at 8.7 out of 10 and their ability to respond appropriately to disclosures at 8.7 out of 10, reflecting tangible capability development.
- Culturally, the programme created space for open discussion of topics that are often avoided. One of the unexpected benefits was the opportunity for very senior leaders to share perspectives and for more junior colleagues to speak up in a mixed-seniority setting.
Despite inheriting tight timelines due to the previous supplier’s shortcomings, the programme was developed, piloted and delivered within six weeks.
“Brilliant session. Good pace, interesting and good balance with interactive and learning”.
Senior Partner
Train Leaders, Change Culture
Work with our specialists to create leadership training tailored to your people and context.
Challenges Along the Way
In a room full of senior lawyers, discussion naturally gravitates towards debate. Definitions are scrutinised, nuances explored and arguments tested.
While this intellectual rigour is a professional strength, it can become a barrier when the goal is behavioural change rather than theoretical agreement.
So, one of the most significant challenges lay in moving participants from a cerebral, analytical mindset into practical leadership action. The task was not to refine definitions of sexual harassment or banter, but to ensure leaders knew exactly what they would do when faced with difficult situations in their teams.
This became particularly evident during one pilot session, when participants were asked to explore where the line sits between acceptable and unacceptable banter.
Instead of focusing on how behaviour manifests in practice (and when intervention is required), the group became engaged in a vigorous debate about the meaning of the word itself.
At that point, facilitation required Mix’s trademark ‘candid but kind’ redirection. The conversation was steered back to the practical question: when behaviour crosses the line, how will you respond as a leader in this firm?
In a room of highly articulate professionals, it would have been easy to let the debate continue. But the objective was action, not semantics.
“This collaboration has left a lasting impression and has been instrumental in driving meaningful change within our organisation”.
Senior Partner
Another challenge emerged during skills practice scenarios.
Leaders were asked to rehearse how they’d respond if someone disclosed sexual harassment, and many found it difficult to strike the right balance between empathy and impartiality.
- On the one hand, they wanted to express concern and support
- On the other, they recognised that they could not assume guilt before an investigation. This tension highlighted just how complex real-life responses can be, and why practice matters.
Rather than treating this as resistance, the programme was iterated in real time. Mix facilitators modelled the conversation first, demonstrating how to respond with compassion while maintaining appropriate neutrality. Once participants could see the approach in action, they were far more confident in applying it themselves.
What Next?
The firm is now exploring an international rollout with Mix, extending its commitment beyond UK legislative requirements to establish consistent standards across its global offices.
The next phase will focus on adapting the programme to different regulatory contexts, while maintaining the same emphasis on leadership responsibility and cultural integrity. Current discussions are focused on how to adapt the programme thoughtfully to different territories, taking into account local regulatory frameworks, cultural contexts and practical implementation challenges, while maintaining consistent standards across the global organisation.
If your firm is seeking to move beyond box-ticking compliance and equip leaders with the confidence to act — not just understand — we can help. Get in touch to explore tailored, senior-level interventions that reflects your regulatory environment, your culture and your ambition for meaningful change.
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