Legal sector’s social mobility challenge laid bare in report
Lawyers are still “disproportionately likely” to come from privileged backgrounds, with three times as many (21%) having attended fee-paying schools than the national UK average (7%), a new report has revealed.
According to lobby group TheCityUK’s annual report, partners are more likely to have attended fee-paying schools (23%), and privately educated lawyers are more highly represented at firms that predominantly carry out corporate work (46%).
The report cites 2019 data which shows women make up 49% of all lawyers in law firms and 38% of practising barristers, and 55% of pupils, in England and Wales. It showed that lawyers from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds represent 21% of the workforce in law firms and make up 13% of practising barristers. Meanwhile, 3% of solicitors identify as lesbian, gay or bi-sexual (LGB).
The report pointed to figures from The Law Society that showed that in 2019, women with practising certificates outnumbered men by over 4,500 (up from 2,000 in 2018) in England and Wales, while the representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups (BAME) among practising certificate holders rose to 17.5% (up from 16.9% in 2018).
The report, however, noted that the sector still faced a challenge in ensuring that talented people from all backgrounds can enter the sector and that the lack of diversity among senior levels of law firms, which continues to be less than the industry average, remained a key barrier.
According to the study, only 33% of partners, and 16.2% of QCs, are women, while in top 100 law firms, only 29% of partners are women and 6% of partners are BAME. For equity partners the figures are 24% female and 4% BAME.
The report said: “Across the sector, law firms, chambers, in-house teams and the judiciary are eager to draw upon the diversity of talent available in the UK. By some measures, diversity in the legal profession is well established but, as is the case across financial and related professional services, there is still much work to do and the sector is working hard to address historical imbalances.”
According to a study, “ A Report on the experience of black self-employed barristers”, released last week by the Black Barristers’ Network, 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.
And earlier this month, some of the UK’s largest law firms joined recruiters by signing a charter that aims to provide equal access to job opportunities within the legal sector.
Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Herbert Smith Freehills, Slaughter and May, and Travers Smith became the five founding signatories of the Recruitment Agency Race Fairness Commitment, developed by diversity recruitment specialist Rare.
According to a report published by Rare in March 2020, “ Closing the ethnicity stay gap”, British law firms still struggle to retain ethnic minority talent.
The study showed that while 30% to 50% of British trainees in many law firms come from minority ethnic backgrounds, these recruits spend on average 20% less time in post than their white counterparts.
