Asia's diverse cultures, histories and languages have moulded its companies and communities, their outlooks and ambitions. Our people and our business need to match that diversity.
"To attract the very best talent to our own teams, we need to ensure all cultures and backgrounds can thrive in our workplaces," said CEO Justin D'Agostino.
We've launched our new Asia Multicultural Network to provide coaching, mentoring and training for our people. It will run events with, and for, our clients on cultural diversity and inclusion.
The network will tackle hard issues too, calling out unconscious bias and supporting diverse promotion and resourcing.
It sits proudly alongside our existing LGBT+ and gender equity networks, as 'business as usual' in our firm in Asia.
"Cultural diversity is rarely a question of a single ethnicity, nationality, language or religion," said the Network's head, partner Hew Kian Heong. "We're all a blend of different backgrounds, experiences and cultural understanding, and much of it is hidden from others at first glance."
To celebrate this new initiative and to open our minds – we talked to five of our people in Asia and asked them that standard icebreaker question: "Where are you from?" Their answers might surprise you.
We hope you enjoy their stories. Watch the videos to see their responses.
It's helped prepare me as a lawyer – I question my assumptions about other people and other cultures.
May Tai
Managing Partner, Asia
May Tai, Managing Partner – Asia, Disputes
Damien Roberts, Partner – Tokyo, Corporate
Monica Sun, Partner – Beijing, Corporate
Michael Thillaivasan, Legal Project Manager - Disputes, Asia
Maisie Ko, Associate - Hong Kong, Corporate
