Firm focus on nurturing talent 

Attracting and retaining the best talent is a major challenge facing the Scottish legal profession. Firms must look beyond salary and conditions and focus on a positive workplace culture if they want to succeed. This requires a long-term investment in people, a strong focus on creating close client relationships, and a commitment to the communities we serve.

We believe it’s also important to encourage colleagues to bring their whole selves to work. CMS prides itself on its diversity and inclusion policies that ensure progress within our firm is based solely on ability, attitude and work ethos. As a firm that currently has 45 per cent female partners across Scotland, significantly higher than the industry average, this approach is paying dividends.

Another key element in building a great workplace culture comes from an ability to offer colleagues engaging and high-quality work. As an international law firm that is fully immersed within our local market, CMS people can develop global experience through our 70-plus offices around the world. This approach ensures we leverage the incredible legal talent we have here in Scotland across both local and international markets.

As a firm that values trust over rules, CMS is also focusing on giving its colleagues the flexibility to work in a way that best suits them. The flexible working practices that we had rolled out long before the pandemic have been further developed for the post-Covid landscape. We are now proud to operate on a fully hybrid model supported by our investment in technology which allows our people to work virtually anywhere. Being a responsible business committed to making social impact extends beyond our workplace culture. CMS has science-based targets in place to reduce our carbon emissions and is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

We’re also involved in promoting sustainability through a number of other initiatives including creating Beehive Gardens at our three Scottish offices and delivering our Young Citizens climate action education programme for secondary school students. Our long-term investment in people, clients and communities and our wider commitment to diversity, inclusion and sustainability is helping CMS continue to attract the best legal talent in Scotland.

Partner Content in association with CMS.
Allan Wernham is Managing Director Managing Director (Scotland) at CMS.