Progress on diversity and inclusion in the legal profession

It’s undeniably the case that the legal profession has become more broadly representative of the UK population over the past two decades. However, it continues to face scrutiny from both professional bodies and the general public around its record on diversity, equity and inclusion, with bullying, discrimination and harassment cases involving law firms continuing to hit the headlines. So how much progress has really been made?

A 2022 study of diversity in the legal profession by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) shows progress on a range of fronts but indicates that women, minorities and marginalised groups are still lagging behind, particularly in the larger city law firms that undertake the highest-paying legal work.

• Gender 

Gender diversity in UK law firms is gradually improving, although bigger firms are still falling behind smaller ones. Women account for 61% of solicitors (unchanged since 2019) and 35% of partners overall, while only 31% of partners are women in the largest law firms. Overall, given that large corporate firms account for nearly 70% of the partner population, and that their probability of becoming a partner in other firms is also low, females – and females from a minority ethnic background especially – remain significantly disadvantaged when it comes to career progression.

• Ethnicity

On the surface, the picture with regards to minority ethnic representation is more encouraging, with 17% of lawyers coming from a minority ethnic background – a 0.5% increase since 2019 and broadly in line with the UK population (18%). However, there is still a clear discrepancy in the ethnic diversity profile of partners between larger and smaller firms, with only 8% of partners at the biggest firms being from a minority ethnic background, compared to 23% at firms with two to five partners and 35% at those with a single partner.

• Socio-economic background 

Efforts by organisations such as the Social Mobility Business Partnership and cross-firm collectives such as Legal CORE have done a lot to improve access for those from under-privileged backgrounds. The introduction of apprenticeships will also contribute positively to social mobility. Nevertheless, the legal profession remains the preserve of the well-to-do. The largest law firms boast the highest percentage of lawyers who were educated in independent or fee-paying schools – a total of 29%, compared to the national figure of just 7.5% – and the average proportion of partners who attended Oxford or Cambridge universities stands at 37.9% when compared to a mere 2% of the UK population. Larger firms also had the highest proportion of lawyers from a professional socio-economic background, at 68%, compared to 37% for the general UK population.

• Disability 

Studies have unearthed widespread bullying of disabled lawyers and under-reporting of disability within the legal sector remains a significant problem. While there has been an increase from 4% in 2019, only 5% of lawyers reported having a disability, compared with 14% of the wider UK workforce, suggesting a widespread reluctance to disclose by those with hidden disabilities. It’s therefore highly likely that many disabled lawyers are not getting the support to which they are entitled and may be under-performing as a result, or at risk of leaving the profession altogether.  There is also a clear lack of support for disabled staff, with only 20% of law firms having a dedicated disability inclusion action plan alongside their Diversity and Inclusion policies.

• LGBT+

The picture for LGBT+ legal workers is looking decidedly more positive than it was even 15 years ago. There is a greater proportion who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (3.5%) compared to the UK population (3%), and 1% of legal workers state that their gender identity is different to their sex registered at birth, against a figure of just 0.5% for the wider population. A 2021 survey by the LGBTQ Solicitors Network found that 82% of lesbian, gay and bisexual legal professionals were out to colleagues and 38% were out to clients – a significant improvement from 2009, when the figures stood at 63% and 24% respectively. Nevertheless, research by the Law Society has found that around one fifth (22%) of all LGBT+ workers have experienced negative reactions in the workplace to being LGBT+, suggesting that bias and discrimination around sexual orientation remains an issue.

The legal sector has traditionally faced numerous challenges in improving diversity and inclusion. Key among these is a historical bias in favour of white, middle-class, privately educated males, with structural barriers such as poor-quality education and a lack of access to professional networks, development opportunities and mentors making it difficult for people from under-represented groups to enter and progress in the profession. As a high-pressure industry with long hours and heavy workloads, work-life balance can often be compromised, leading to high attrition rates, particularly for women and carers.

The good news is that we have seen diversity in law firms become a much higher priority for many in recent years.

This has particularly been the case with regards to improving access to the profession, as demonstrated by initiatives such as the contextual recruitment system now used by nearly 50 law firms, including Clifford Chance, Linklaters, Allen & Overy and Baker McKenzie. Progress has also been made by legal regulators towards agreeing principles on tackling counter-inclusive conduct and a growing awareness of remuneration disparities has led to efforts to address the sector’s gender and ethnicity pay gaps. So progress has undoubtedly been made on increasing diversity in the legal profession – but where are the sticking points, and what can law firms do to address them?

While firms have increasingly been advising their clients on mitigating risks around DEI, progress on tackling exclusive or inappropriate behaviour on the part of their own people has been slow and largely reactive. Efforts have typically focused on short-term interventions, such as one-off ‘diversity workshops’ in response to specific incidents of bullying or harassment, as opposed to providing training throughout the employee lifecycle and embedding inclusion in the organisation’s DNA.

Another problem has been the tendency of many law firms to focus on addressing specific individuals’ behaviour as opposed to taking measures to dismantle toxic working environments. For DEI interventions to be truly effective, they need to focus more on building genuinely inclusive cultures and bringing about behaviour change at scale, as opposed to taking a reactive ‘whack-a-mole’ approach to problematic individuals and hoping that everyone else will somehow get the message.

In the course of our work, we’ve also seen a reluctance on the part of partners to deal personally with issues of discrimination, bullying and harassment and a general tendency to regard it as an ‘HR issue’ as opposed to something that’s rooted in company culture and for which they need to take direct responsibility.

In order to achieve genuine culture change, partners need to set the tone from the top, and this starts not just by setting a personal example of good behaviour, but also by taking personal responsibility for the culture of the workplace and developing the necessary skills and confidence to tackle issues around behaviour and exclusion directly, rather than palming it off onto someone else and hoping the problem will go away on its own.

While diversity training has been widely rolled out across law firms in the UK over the past 20 years, its success has been mixed. This is largely down to the fact that much of what’s been on offer to date has done little beyond raising awareness of key issues rather than teaching people what ‘being inclusive’ looks like in practice.

Organisations who were early adopters of DEI training – many law firms among them – did so largely out of a need to comply with their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and had little interest in changing behaviour or creating genuinely inclusive working cultures. As a result, DEI training has often tended to be of the ‘tick-box’ variety, typically regarded as a burdensome add-on of little real value to the business, rather than something that can impact the bottom line.

Times have changed, however, and the tick-box training approach has been found increasingly wanting. Recent tribunal actions such as Allay vs Gehlen have shown that putting staff through a one-off diversity training course isn’t going to be sufficient for employers to claim that they’ve taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent discrimination and harassment.

DEI-conscious employers are wising up to the fact that regular, high-quality diversity training needs to be provided on a regular basis – and, most importantly, it needs to be made available to everyone in the organisation rather than just an elite few.

Our diversity and inclusion training programmes at Kandola+ are developed by psychologists with 40 years’ experience of working with organisations like yours to bring about real and lasting behaviour change. Contact us today to book a demo or find out more about how we can help you create a diverse and inclusive workplace in your law firm.