Herbert Smith Freehills has implemented a diversity plan for Asia that aims by 2025 to have half of its Hong Kong-based partnership and business services leadership be ethnically Asian.

Currently, the Hong Kong office, the firm's largest and oldest office in the region (from legacy Herbert Smith), has 20 partners in Hong Kong. Eight of them are Asian.

The plan to have more Asian partners in Hong Kong is part of the firm's global initiative to improve ethnic diversity among the firm's lawyers and business services staff. Much of the push to make the firm more diverse around the globe has been inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. But in Asia, it is also being driven by client demand.