Opinion: Changing faces of the law

By Michael Webster, Vice Chair, Black Solicitors Network

In March 2006, the Black Solicitors Network (BSN) published a Diversity League Table Survey of the largest UK law firms. The survey, the first of its kind, gave a detailed analysis of the ethnicity and gender composition of leading law firms, from partner to paralegal.

The survey results confirmed the perception that women and minorities were under-represented at the senior levels within large City law firms. For example, of the firms surveyed, only three per cent of the partners were from ethnic minorities and a third of all firms surveyed had no ethnic-minority partners at all. In terms of gender, less than one in five partners were women, despite comprising the majority of new entrants into the profession.

However, in the quest for talent the changing demographics of multicultural Britain will require firms
to face up to the prospect that the traditional lawyer’s ‘identikit’ is no longer representative of students who aspire to join the profession. A recent survey by the Law Society’s Strategic Research Unit, ‘Trends in the solicitors’ profession’, states that of the 10,159 students enrolling with the Law Society in 2005-2006, 63 per cent were women, while 24.7 per cent of those newly enrolled were from minority ethnic groups.

Clearly all firms must face the prospect that a policy, whether deliberate or not, of recruiting and retaining a homogenous group of white males means firms will inevitably miss out on recruiting from the widest pool of talent. Put simply, the recruitment of a diverse workforce is now a business imperative to ensure that the largest law firms recruit the very best candidates and remain competitive. However, although many firms have genuine aspirations to recruit and retain a more diverse workforce, the theory has not been easy to translate into ‘numbers on the board’. The practical steps law firms may consider include:

Adopting a long-term plan with specific targets to increase diversity among the workforce;
Senior management taking the lead to ensure that increasing diversity is recognised throughout the firm as a core objective;
Abandoning the policy of recruitment from a selection of universities to include others with a larger percentage of ethnic minorities;
Critically evaluating culture to assess whether firms are actually able to absorb a range of candidates who may come from differing social, economic, cultural and ethnically-diverse backgrounds;
Ensuring that diverse candidates are not marginalised into non-core practice areas, nor denied equal access to pivotal jobs or teams that allow junior members to be ‘spotted’ as genuine candidates for promotion.

The legal profession should also be aware there are many competing industries, such as investment banking and accountancy, casting their net in the same pool for talent.

This year, a Stonewall survey has provided further insight into the current shortcomings of the legal profession. Its Workplace Equality Index booklet reveals that, in a study of 100 businesses, which includes UK law firms, the legal sector failed to meet the average standard of good workplace-practice equality. It performed poorly in comparison to a number of other sectors, including investment banking, the police and central-government authorities. Stonewall describe the high scoring sectors as promoting “equalised policies and benefits”, thereby showing significant dedication and achievement to the cause that is workplace equality.

In order for the UK legal profession to maintain its pre-eminence as one of the world’s leading providers of legal services, unlocking the potential of all lawyers, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or social background, will be a key driver for future success.

The second BSN Diversity League Table is published in May 2007.

Michael Webster is the joint managing partner of City law firm Webster Dixon LLP and Vice Chair of the Black Solicitors Network, which is a recognised group of the Law Society and the largest group of black and ethnic minority lawyers in Europe. He can be contacted at maw@websterdixon.com