For those in the legal profession, its record on casting its net beyond the privileged has long been an embarrassment… which is why it was a surprise to see a new ranking of the UK’s 50 most socially mobile employers include no less than 16 law firms.
The Official Statistics Bulletin published yesterday (2 June) by the Judicial Appointments commission (JAC) has revealed that black and minority ethnic lawyers (BAME) applying to become judges are far less likely to succeed than their white counterparts. Continue reading “Odds against you: New figures show BAME applicants less likely to succeed as judges than white counterparts”
A privately educated elite continues to dominate the legal profession, as new Sutton Trust figures show 78% of barristers have Oxbridge qualifications, while the figure is 74% for the judiciary and 55% of solicitors. Continue reading “Half of solicitors are Oxbridge educated, along with 74% of judges, new data reveals”
UK top 20 firm Pinsent Masons is the top law shop, and fifth best overall UK employer for LGBT staff according to Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index.
Eighteen major law firms, including Linklaters, Macfarlanes, White & Case and Sullivan & Cromwell, have joined a new initiative to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds join the legal profession.
Recent efforts to improve social mobility within the legal profession are having little-to-no effect at the Bar and within the judiciary, two new studies have concluded.
Despite much debate in recent years, social inclusion in the legal profession remains woeful. Are a new range of initiatives the latest diversity fads or steps towards a breakthrough?
Ray Berg, UK managing partner of Osborne Clarke, recalls first getting his foot in the door of the legal profession: ‘I only got work experience because my dad started talking to someone in the back of his cab. He was so proud to say his son was this, that and the other. That someone was the then managing partner at Nicholson Graham & Jones and he said: “Would your son like to do a week’s work experience with us?” That was extremely fortuitous but people without those contacts shouldn’t have to rely on fortune like that.’
Continue reading “Small gestures – can a new wave of social inclusion schemes deliver?”
Eight elite City firms have adopted a contextual recruitment tool designed to boost social mobility in their ranks after a government report criticised professional services firms for ‘systematically excluding bright working-class applicants’ from their workforce.
A government report into barriers of entry in the professions has criticised the ‘class ceiling’ at law firms and other professional service outfits which it says are blocking working-class people from elite firms.
In a move to boost diversity within judicial ranks, the judiciary has begun piloting a new initiative to allow candidates from ‘non-traditional backgrounds’ to apply for positions as deputy High Court judges without gaining judicial experience first.
