Penningtons Manches Cooper named ‘HR Team of the Year’ at People in Law Awards 2021

Posted: 22/06/2021

The human resources (HR) team at Penningtons Manches Cooper has won the ‘HR Team of the Year (for firms of up to 750 employees)’ award at the People in Law Awards 2021.

People in Law is a network that seeks to advance people management throughout the legal sector. The awards are held to recognise ‘the very best people achievements across the industry’ and are open to those involved in HR, learning and development, recruitment, diversity and inclusion and reward as well as senior partners, managing partners and other professionals working in the area.

The judges commended Penningtons Manches Cooper’s HR team for its ‘very ambitious breadth of projects’ that had ‘clear, tangible and measurable impact in key strategic areas of the firm’. Several notable initiatives that have been led by the HR team over the past year were highlighted in the firm’s submission for the award. These included changing the internal business support structure to an HR business partner model, which ensured consistency across teams and divisions regardless of location. The department also implemented a new firmwide HR platform as well as a learning management system, a successful LinkedIn Learning pilot scheme and an upgraded benefits system. In addition, the team reviewed the firm’s diversity and inclusion strategy and implemented a more robust structure for employee support networks.

All of the above and more was achieved while the team managed a highly effective and ongoing response to the Covid-19 pandemic. After addressing the initial challenges of moving the firm completely online, the team has worked to enhance the firm’s flexibility by developing a new, future-proof agile working strategy that underlines the firm’s commitment to a healthy work life balance. As mental health and collaboration has become even more of a priority for the firm amid the continuing pandemic, the team has implemented additional wellbeing initiatives.

HR director Andrea Law comments: “We are delighted to be commended for our work over the past year. The department has spearheaded a variety of projects that have resulted in benefits across the firm and have helped to make everyone’s working day easier. It is also a credit to our team that they managed to achieve so much during what has been a particularly challenging time.”

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