Promoting Diversity

Portia is committed to promoting diversity. Diversity to us means fighting the invisible bias that exists in society: bias that creates barriers to everyone enjoying an equal chance to access justice, human rights and happiness.

We aren't saying we're good at this diversity thing, we are saying we want to be good at it. It's a journey, and like any journey we just have to keep moving forward if we are ever to achieve our goal.

Women: for a long time in New Zealand women have fallen victim to both active and passive discrimination when it comes to employment, pay and career prospects. The most basic thing we can do to create a diverse society is to start with creating gendered equality within the workplace.

Disabled people: You only have to try to navigate city streets in a wheelchair, or attempt to go supermarket shopping with your eyes tightly shut, to get just an inkling of some of the invisible barriers non-disabled people never come up against. Disability exists because society tolerates bad design and unfair prejudice.

People who follow a religion: religion is a personal choice; one that often helps individuals to make sense of the world and their place in it. Your choice to follow a religion, or even not follow a religion, is a basic human right and should be respected.

People with an alternate gender: Trans people, queer folk, those born with different genitalia, anyone who does not feel they fit into the ‘traditional’ gender boxes... everyone has the right to their own feelings and who are we to question them? Often such people suffer bias, bullying or victimisation even though they are - first and foremost - human beings. Nobody has the right to question another person's gender choice. Nobody should have to experience prejudice in New Zealand because of it.

People who live in poverty: the gap between 'haves' and 'have nots' has widened significantly in New Zealand, and there is a serious poverty issue throughout the country. One of the major issues for people with little means is accessing justice. The New Zealand government provides support via legal aid, but we feel that not enough lawyers offer their services to people eligible for legal aid. This is particularly of concern for the very old, people with mental health issues, those who are addicted to substances, people who have not had the benefit of positive parenting or education, and people who do not speak English as a primary language.

Diversity: our mission

A measure of our success in promoting diversity in the workplace will be that we have created a workplace culture that reflects opportunities to all people to achieve their life goals and support one-another.

Some of our Wins

Our commitment to diversity is visible both within and outside of the firm.
Senior managers actively lead on the subject of diversity and inclusion within their areas of responsibility.
Pay equity has been achieved through fair pay reviews that set 'remuneration goals' and clearly outline steps staff can take to achieve them.
Where court responsibilities allow, working hours and days are fully-flexible.
Parents or caregivers have the option to work from home at their discretion (where Court duties allow).
We actively promote participation, engagement and inclusion in decisions that affect everyone.
Discussions about diversity and inclusion are about ‘how?’ rather than ‘why?

Our immediate goal

We will have a greater focus (and work more closely with agencies in this goal) to remove the disabilities presented to people with impairment, so their needs are met and legal pains are solved.

Our longer-term goals

We will actively create employment opportunities specifically accessible to disabled people by understanding impairments and the subsequent barricades society constructs.
Portia will be seen as an exemplar for diversity and inclusion.
We will identify and address discrepancies in the diversity of the law profession and do our bit to rectify those through training and employment opportunities.

What does Portia do to achieve this?

We are signatories to the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principals, the New Zealand Law Society Gender Equality Charter and help promote the White Ribbon Campaign against violence.

Portia is a fierce advocate of legal aid, and the rights of every person to access justice. It's not about doing things 'pro bono' (for free) - that can sometimes harm the dignity of an individual and can sometimes create an uncomfortable power imbalance between a client and their lawyer. We fight all the time to get legal aid services more widely available to vulnerable members of society.

We provide our staff with flexibility as to when they can work. Most of our team can choose their days and hours of work, parents are given the choice to work from home and we encourage staff to go part-time if they want to study.

We're trying our best to ensure our diversity strategy is visible to our staff and clients.

We are always open to suggestions, criticism and guidance. We recognise all social and community services as our equals - no matter what their size or expertise - because they are always teaching us something about how to make the world a better place.