Law firms take aim at obstacles to BAME lawyers

Leading UK law firms have vowed to combat the career obstacles faced by  black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers (BAME), after 17 top law firms signed the  Race Fairness Commitment (RFC).

Firms are taking this initiative in partnership with Rare, a diversity recruitment specialist in the legal sector. While most leading City law firms now recruit cohorts of graduate trainees that are as ethnically diverse as the population, ethnic diversity at entry level has not led to sufficient ethnic diversity at management level, according to  research by Rare.

This research also revealed that many BAME lawyers have not found their firms’ cultures inclusive and that BAME lawyers spend on average 20% less time at firms than their white colleagues before leaving.

Measures within the  RFC include close analysis of data and monitoring to identify and attack the points at which BAME lawyers are unfairly stalling in their careers. Firms have also committed to ensuring that race and racism are better recognised and talked about internally.

These measures also include ensuring that junior BAME lawyers have access to senior management, and that race and racism are talked about in every induction and exit interview. Law firms have pledged to monitor interview and offer rates, retention rates, pay and promotion rates where they relate to BAME lawyers.

The RFC includes an explicit commitment to continue to foster workplaces where BAME people can be themselves at work as much as white people can - without feeling the need to be inauthentic in terms of their speech or culture, simply in order to “fit in”.

The RFC has been signed by Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Clifford Chance, DWF, Dentons, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Linklaters, Macfarlanes, Norton Rose Fulbright, Pinsent Masons, RPC, Slaughter and May, Travers Smith, and White & Case.