Zang, Bergel & Viñes Abogados embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We are aware that the more inclusive we are, the better our work and the overall performance of the Firm will be.

67%
of ZBV paralegals are women
45,5%
of ZBV associates are women
36%
of ZBV partners are women
55%
of ZBV staff are women

We value diversity and believe that inclusion within our community is critical to our success as a global oriented firm, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.

We are also committed to equal treatment of all employees without regard to position, race, origin, ethnic diversity, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, political affiliation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, physical or mental disability or other basis protected by law. While our Firm is committed to following this principle in every facet of employment, all employees share in the responsibility to promote and foster a favorable work environment of mutual respect, in which our 8 main corporate values are held at the highest standards: Excellency at Work, Efficiency, Passion for Client Services, Leadership, Teamwork, Ability to Think Big, Commitment and Empathy

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

At ZBV meritocracy is the key factor to attract and retain top talent. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. Our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative, at all job levels. Our recruiting, interviewing, and hiring activities are consistent with our Firm´s commitment to the principles of affirmative action to ensure that all individuals are given equal opportunity for employment and promotion. Some of our hiring policies include:

  • EXTENSIVE APPLICANT INTERVIEWS: The foundations of staffing management involve interviewing a broad amount of candidates for every position. Our HR Manager commits best efforts to interview as many women as men that were contacted for the position. This policy tries to ensure we review both sex candidates equally.
  • EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND: As a policy we do not favor graduates based on where they obtained their degree, as we value all candidates equally and offer interview opportunities to all qualified candidates.
  • SELF-RECRUITING SOURCING: Before going outside of the Firm to fill a position, we promote internal sourcing or recruitment, which is the practice of promoting or laterally moving existing employees. The Firm will give tools to its employees to help develop the required competences. On this regard, we establish Development Programs that contemplate the Gender perspective and training plans (mentoring, coaching, etc).

As Equal Opportunity Employers we are committed to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment of any kind.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES PROGRAMME AND GENDER PERSPECTIVE

At ZBV we are well-known for our various efforts in the field of women´s advancement, and are committed to closing the economic and social gender gaps in the legal industry in Argentina. We are devoted to improving the possibilities of progress to all female professionals at the Firm, as inclusion is a sense of honor and duty.

This is the reason why we carry out programs in order to improve the working conditions, and to allow the retaining and promotion of talented women:

  • – Soft-Landing programs, where we seek those female employees who rejoin their maternity leave can find the balance between their personal and professional life. The main objective is that mothers, achieve a successful and stable reincorporation. We have hourly flexibility plans adapted to their new needs.
  • – Convinced about the importance of helping young women lawyers achieve their potentials, we have developed a very successful female mentoring program that will undergo its fourth edition in 2018. Having partnered with the Business Law Master of the prestigious Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires, the mentorship offers a 4-session program aimed to coach women lawyers throughout their careers.

In ZBV we have an elevated percentage of female partners.

Currently, 36% of ZBV partners are women, a gender ratio well above the market average of 16% as depicted by recent surveys.

FLEXIBILITY POLITICS

To find a balance between personal and professional life, in ZBV we design different plans that allow to those employees who are mothers/fathers or have people in charge and care, to be more actives on their family life while they develop their professional career. This plans include:

  • – Everyday part-time
  • – Some days per week part-time
  • – Everyday flex-time
  • – Birthday and Children´s birthday half day off
  • – Home office

Professionals on flex time have the same growth opportunities, are assessed on performance and results and maintain their salaries and benefits. This also applies for firm employees who care for an elderly person.

Having recently decided to extend paternity leave arrangements has been another successful initiative. This gives the father the opportunity to spend an extended time with his child beyond the leave allotted by the Argentine law. This increases our father´s involvement in the raising and care of the baby without loss of salary. This program has proved to be beneficial to the father, who can now share parental and household responsibilities equally. Gender equity is not just a women matter it involves women and men equally.

In 2017 we inaugurated a ZBV 2022 Committee which will plan out the future of our Firm. We summoned an internal team and external counsel from diverse industries (technology, advertising, interactive media, branding, etc.) to dream the future years at the Firm.

The accomplished of this principles of equal opportunities is function of the CAL (Committee of Legal Administration –in Spanish-, made up of the administrative Partners)