Pinsent Masons has acquired diversity consultancy Brook Graham for an undisclosed fee.

The consultancy, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the law firm, will remain a "separate business and brand", Pinsents employment head Linda Jones (pictured above) told Legal Week.

She added: "When the Brook Graham opportunity came along, it looked like a chance to turbocharge our diversity offering."

Pinsents senior partner Richard Foley said: "Brook Graham is a scalable business with a strong reputation and an impressive client base to match. Diversity and inclusion is high on the agenda for organisations and, combined with our own international network, legal expertise and dedication to diversity and inclusion, I'm confident that clients will reap the benefits of this valuable combined offering."

Pinsents has worked with the specialist business since 2012 on its own diversity programmes including gender balance initiative Project Sky, which was recently awarded the diversity innovation award at Legal Week's 2017 Innovation Awards.

Brook Graham's clients include engineering company Rolls-Royce, energy company Shell, technology company Nokia and banks Standard Chartered and HSBC.

In September, Pinsents hired its own diversity and conclusion consultant, Kate Dodd. Initially, her role had been more internally focused, but she is now doing more client-facing work. Dodd previously spent nine years at Eversheds, becoming a legal director in the HR practice group.

The acquisition marks Pinsents latest venture outside core legal services. Earlier this year, the firm bought a minority stake in new law startup Yuzu, while the firm also has a majority stake in cloud-based compliance programme Cerico.