Half of UK black barristers say race stifles career opportunities
More than half of black barristers in the UK (58%) believe that their career opportunities have or may have been negatively affected by their race, according to a study by the Black Barristers’ Network (BBN).
According to “ A Report on the experience of black self-employed barristers”, released on November 19, in a survey of 100 self-employed black barristers, half of respondents also said the level of support they received throughout their careers had or may have been curtailed by their ethnicity.
The report noted that black barristers represent only around 3.2% of the UK bar, and they remain considerably underrepresented in a large number of practice areas.
These areas include IP, which prompted leading IP partners and leaders to urgently call for more action to promote D&I during a free-to-view LSPN Connect session in September ( watch here).
Following the release of the BBN report last week, Natasha Shotunde, chair of the BBN and a barrister based at Garden Court Chambers said: “This survey shows that many black barristers feel that their experiences at the bar may be negatively affected by racism.
“What is particularly striking is the differences in experiences by black male and female barristers, with many more black female barristers reporting negative treatment which may be due to their race.
“This highlights the intersectionality of their race and gender, and how that can result in negative treatment towards black female barristers,” she added.
The survey revealed that most respondents (54%) felt that they had been treated inappropriately by opponents because of their race at some point in their career, while a significant number reported inappropriate treatment within chambers. The most common experiences were microaggressions (46 respondents) and being patronised (40 respondents), according to the report.
A considerable number also reported feeling undermined (32 respondents), silenced (20 respondents) or having suffered aggression (14 respondents).
While reports of overt racism were less common, nine respondents reported they had experienced this from colleagues in their chambers.
Gendered reactions
Female respondents were more likely than male respondents to report experiencing being undermined (36% compared with 27% of male respondents); being silenced (23% compared with 13% of male respondents); being patronised (45% compared with 33% of male respondents).
Conversely, male respondents were more likely than female respondents to report experiencing aggression (20% compared with 13% of female respondents), and overt racism (10% compared with 8% of female respondents).
The survey also revealed that 24% respondents said their relationships with solicitors had been negatively affected by their race; a quarter said they might have been negatively impacted; and 53% of respondents thought their allocation of work in chambers had or may have been negatively affected by their race.
The study also found that a considerable proportion of all respondents had, at some point in their careers, been mistaken for a person other than counsel by court staff. The most common examples were: being mistaken for a party in the case (49 respondents) and a defendant in a criminal case (33 respondents).
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