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From tracking who gets high-profile assignments to recognising contributions beyond billable hours, Kathy Teoh, DE&I Lead for APAC and MEA, shares how the firm is putting inclusion into practice.
Improving workforce diversity is only part of the equation. For Clyde & Co Clasis Singapore, the next challenge was ensuring that colleagues from under-represented communities had equal opportunities to progress into senior leadership positions. Despite making progress in representation, the firm recognised that more needed to be done to address how employees accessed career-defining opportunities.
To tackle this, the firm listened to its people, interviewing more than 10% of its fee-earning colleagues before refreshing its diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) strategy. The approach moved beyond unconscious bias training towards practical changes in workplace processes, particularly how work is allocated and how contributions such as mentoring and pro bono legal advice are recognised. The firm has also introduced initiatives to support employees through different life stages and widen access to careers in the legal sector.
Named a finalist for 'Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' at the HR Excellence Awards 2026, Singapore, Kathy Teoh, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Lead – APAC & MEA regions at Clyde & Co, shares how data is helping the firm identify gaps in career progression, why fair work allocation matters to both employees and clients, and how HR can balance AI adoption with the human skills needed to develop future legal talent.
Q What was the 'lightbulb moment' behind your HR initiative?
Our lightbulb moment was really driven by our data driven approach. Despite making great progress at increasing representation of unrepresented communities, we noticed we still needed to do more to ensure these communities progressed to the highest levels of leadership within the firm.
We set out on a journey to listen to our people, interviewing over 10% of our fee-earning colleagues. The results of this listening exercise helped shape a refreshed DE&I strategy with a focus on programmatic delivery, moving beyond unconscious bias workshops to concrete, practical solutions for our people and our communities.
We realised DE&I shouldn’t just be an HR initiative; it needed to be baked into all our processes and policies to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to take on visible and high-profile work.
Q Innovation rarely comes without obstacles. What was the biggest challenge your team faced along the way, and how did you overcome it?
Our biggest hurdle was defaulting to old habits. Implementing innovation in a fast-paced environment is always challenging. We had a clear focus on reviewing and, where applicable, change how work was allocated. Even though this represented an additional time commitment, we were able to clearly demonstrate the business value. Our clients expect diverse legal teams and want to have visibility of these metrics before they instruct us. Putting diverse teams on matters is a vital component of winning business. The implementation of these changes was truly a team effort, and we brought in head of practice groups to help design the system. Once we tracked project assignments with clear data, our partners could see the patterns for themselves and became our biggest champions.
Q How has this initiative influenced your people and organisation - and what conversation do you hope it sparks across the HR community?
Inside the firm, we’re seeing lower levels of attrition across our associate populations and an increase of diverse talent stepping into partner roles. People recognise and appreciate that work is shared fairly and equitably. We also started officially recognising the time people spend on pro bono legal advice, mentoring and being a champion for our culture, instead of only counting billable hours. In terms of HR operations, we truly believe that we need to move past talk and tick-box exercises. Real diversity goes beyond posting on social media or hosting panel talks and needs to be reflected in changes to how we work and the opportunities we provide.
Q What's next - how are you planning to build on your progress and keep the momentum going?
“In 2023, we launched the LifeWorks Family Leave Policy, which is designed to support colleagues during significant family-forming and family-care events, including birth, adoption, fertility treatment, neonatal care and baby loss. It provides our people with 26 weeks of fully paid parental leave for all new parents, regardless of gender or route to parenthood. This helps to create true equality for our people from day one of starting a family.”
We are also expanding our focus to support working parents, and colleagues from lower-income backgrounds through our signature Legal Insight for Future Talent (LIFT) programme which has been designed to improve access to careers in law and professional services for individuals who may face barriers to entering the sector, particularly those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, we are supporting our lawyers to gain direct access to industry decision-makers via placements within in-house legal teams.
Q As the HR landscape continues to evolve, what do you believe will be the next big opportunity for HR leaders, and how is your organisation preparing for it?
The next big opportunity is balancing AI with the human side of work. As AI takes over routine research and drafting, junior lawyers simply won't learn via traditional methods. What will set great lawyers apart is human connection, judgment, and intuitive problem-solving. HR needs to make sure tech tools don't accidentally carry hidden biases or stall the development of junior lawyers. We are preparing for this by training our lawyers in leadership and client skills much earlier in their careers. Most importantly, we are using the time saved by AI to implement tools for learning the skills mentioned above, to enable our lawyers to build long, healthy careers.
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets section!
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