*/
Barristers’ chambers should adopt formal, regulated mentoring schemes to encourage diversity, a Legal Services Board (“LSB”) report has recommended.
These schemes “should be supported by regulation or formal procedures including mechanisms to monitor their efficacy”.
The report, “Diversity in the legal profession in England and Wales,” published in October, looks at the career patterns of women and black and minority ethnic (“BME”) legal professionals.
Several practitioners, particularly in the north where there are few senior barristers and partners who are either women or BME, said they favoured mentoring and spoke of the importance of visible role models.
The legal profession has become increasingly diverse in recent years. In 2008-09, women made up 46 per cent of solicitors and 34 per cent of barristers, while BME professionals made up 13 per cent of solicitors and 16 per cent of barristers.
However, the report found that opportunities for lawyers are “not equally distributed”. White graduates from higher socio-economic groups are over-represented in City firms and at the Bar, while BME women from lower socio-economic groups are concentrated in small high street practices.
Individual choices accounted for some of these outcomes, but there were also other factors at play. Despite there being formal processes in most offices, work was often allocated unfairly so the careers of some were fostered at the expense of others. Networking events often involved “predominantly male” activities. Some women barristers commented on the fact their self-employed status meant there were few diversity initiatives available to them.
Informal mentoring through which “powerful senior figures (generally white men) tended to foster the careers of young white men” was present in most workplaces and was a “major obstacle” to diversity, the report found.
The report’s recommendations included: supporting outreach programmes; offering bursaries for the LPC and BPTC and for trainees and pupil barristers; encouraging the development of formal support networks and mentoring schemes and supporting role models; and ensuring work allocation and promotion procedures are transparent.
These schemes “should be supported by regulation or formal procedures including mechanisms to monitor their efficacy”.
The report, “Diversity in the legal profession in England and Wales,” published in October, looks at the career patterns of women and black and minority ethnic (“BME”) legal professionals.
Several practitioners, particularly in the north where there are few senior barristers and partners who are either women or BME, said they favoured mentoring and spoke of the importance of visible role models.
The legal profession has become increasingly diverse in recent years. In 2008-09, women made up 46 per cent of solicitors and 34 per cent of barristers, while BME professionals made up 13 per cent of solicitors and 16 per cent of barristers.
However, the report found that opportunities for lawyers are “not equally distributed”. White graduates from higher socio-economic groups are over-represented in City firms and at the Bar, while BME women from lower socio-economic groups are concentrated in small high street practices.
Individual choices accounted for some of these outcomes, but there were also other factors at play. Despite there being formal processes in most offices, work was often allocated unfairly so the careers of some were fostered at the expense of others. Networking events often involved “predominantly male” activities. Some women barristers commented on the fact their self-employed status meant there were few diversity initiatives available to them.
Informal mentoring through which “powerful senior figures (generally white men) tended to foster the careers of young white men” was present in most workplaces and was a “major obstacle” to diversity, the report found.
The report’s recommendations included: supporting outreach programmes; offering bursaries for the LPC and BPTC and for trainees and pupil barristers; encouraging the development of formal support networks and mentoring schemes and supporting role models; and ensuring work allocation and promotion procedures are transparent.
Barristers’ chambers should adopt formal, regulated mentoring schemes to encourage diversity, a Legal Services Board (“LSB”) report has recommended.
A decade of cuts and the brutal pandemic have left courts and barristers struggling to cope – a bid for justice spending
Philip N Bristow explains how to unlock your aged debt to fund your tax in one easy step
With the property market witnessing significant changes since the beginning of the pandemic, Fleet Street Wealth’s Managing Director Julian Morgan considers the future of the home, the second home and the office
In partnership with the Bar Council, LexisNexis is offering up to 60% off its extensive webinar offering.
Chambers is expanding its team.
Making a move from the Bar to a career in governance: Maria Brookes outlines three good reasons to switch and how to do it
The family law system is in crisis and a failure to recognise it as such demeans the Herculean efforts of all involved, writes Celestine Greenwood, an exhausted family practitioner
Should we cap numbers coming to the Bar? Or help them make data driven decisions? asks IshanKolhatkar
Time to look afresh at the imposter syndrome narrative? Why pathologizing normal anxieties can be unhelpful to barristers and future generations. By Kate Brunner QC and Sarah Regan
Shifting the taboo, two silks talk about the menopause, its impact on women at the Bar and the need for a profession-wide rethink. By Lyndsey de Mestre QC and Brie Stevens-Hoare QC
In a profession which can be attached to, and defined by, archaic stereotypes, how to be yourself, explore new areas and own your own time? Here are Lennart Poulsen's 'lessons learnt'...
