At Rare, Raphael goes beyond basic attraction and development, working closely with firms to review and improve their onboarding practices and their approach to assessment and retention. He hires the same calibre of graduate that he places with clients, aggressively seeking people out at the start of their careers and developing them on an ongoing basis. The culture at Rare is built around creating as inclusive an environment as possible, through team building activities, which are respectful of a wide variety of cultural and personal preferences such as non-drinking, daytime activities. Raphael is also actively involved in increasing access to the best education to ethnic minority students. Target Oxbridge is Rare’s project to develop more competitive and successful applicants of black heritage to Oxbridge than ever before, with the end goal of increasing their presence in the business world. Every year for the past decade, Rare has identified the UK’s best black students, Rare Rising Stars, and honoured them at a high-profile awards reception at the Houses of Parliament. Among many awards for Rare as a whole, Raphael also received the Legal Week Outstanding Innovator Award in 2017.