Case Study: Building a Speak Up Culture in a Global Law Firm

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.

Importantly, 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.”
Training participant

Credible Facilitation for a Senior Legal Audience

 
For this audience, credibility was essential. 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 that 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 crucially, delivery required 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. “
Training participant

The Mix Approach

The programme was built on three 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 was 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”.
Training participant

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, 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.

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. All materials were designed to reflect their internal standards and branding, reinforcing credibility and continuity. A comprehensive resource guide – approximately 50 pages long – was developed to support the workshop, providing leaders with detailed reference material they could return to long after the session. This ensured the learning was not a one-off event, but a practical leadership resource embedded within the firm’s own framework.

“This partnership felt like a seamless extension of our team”.
Training participant

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”.
Training participant

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.

Following the success of the programme, the firm is now in discussions with Mix about an international rollout. While the original initiative was in part driven by changes to UK legislation, leaders want colleagues in every jurisdiction to understand that preventing harassment and fostering a speak up culture matters, regardless of local legal requirements.

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”.
Training participant

Challenges Along the Way

One of the most significant challenges lay in moving participants from a cerebral, analytical mindset into practical leadership action. 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. 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”.
Training participant

Another challenge emerged during skills practice scenarios. Leaders were asked to rehearse how they would 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. The willingness to refine and adapt the session ensured that challenges became learning moments that strengthened, rather than undermined, the programme.

Summary

From the outset, this initiative was about more than compliance. The firm’s goal was to equip senior leaders with the clarity, confidence and practical capability to prevent sexual harassment and strengthen a genuine speak up culture. Rather than responding to crisis, the firm chose to act proactively – recognising that leadership ownership is essential in shaping culture. The objective was clear: ensure leaders understood their legal and regulatory obligations, took responsibility for risk within their own teams and felt prepared to respond appropriately and compassionately when concerns were raised.

Mix’s approach reflected both the complexity of the topic and the sophistication of the audience.

The programme was grounded in legislative change, regulatory expectations and the firm’s own internal policies, brought to life through relevant case studies and realistic scenarios. It was co-created with the firm’s internal learning specialists, delivered by credible facilitators comfortable engaging senior lawyers and designed to prioritise action over abstract debate. Through skills practice, structured dialogue and carefully facilitated challenge, leaders were moved from theoretical understanding to practical application.

The results demonstrate strong engagement and impact. With approximately 92% of leaders participating and consistently high feedback scores across all key learning objectives, the programme was widely regarded as practical, relevant and valuable. Participants reported increased confidence in recognising harassment, conducting risk assessments, responding to disclosures and challenging inappropriate behaviour. Perhaps most significantly, the sessions created space for open, honest conversation across seniority levels — strengthening cultural transparency and shared accountability.

What Next?

Building on this foundation, 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 organisation is seeking to move beyond box-ticking compliance and equip leaders with the confidence to act — not just understand — Mix Diversity can help. Get in touch to explore how we can design a tailored, senior-level intervention that reflects your regulatory environment, your culture and your ambition for meaningful change.