On 29 September 2022 Nina Sahu, chair of Liverpoool Law Society’s Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and Sarah Poblete, CEO, attended an online forum arranged by the D&I team at Law Society. Chris Seel and Samantha McLeish, who are members of the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Team, provided a preview of upcoming D&I work including how local law societies and their members can get involved in two particular projects: the 100 Year Centenary of Women in Law and the Law Society’s D&I Framework. If either of these topics are of particular interest to you, and you would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Society at membershipengagement@lawsociety.org.uk.
100 Year Centenary of Women in Law
In 1922 the first woman to officially qualify as a solicitor was admitted to the profession. The Law Society will remember and celebrate this milestone of 100 years of women in law through a campaign with three phases, running from December 2022 to March 2023.
Phase One will begin with a historical article on the first four women solicitors and a launch event at 113 Chancery Lane. This will be an invite only event and shall be livestreamed to those who wish to attend from further afield. This will coincide with a social media campaign profiling 100 inspiring women in law from the past and member profiles articles.
Phase Two will run from January through to February. The focus of this phase will be on informing, educating and guiding firms and organisations on the changes that still need to be made. The Law Society hopes, as part of this phase, to record members of the profession speaking about their hopes for the profession, create member profiles on hybrid and flexible working and alternative career paths, to develop a D&I dictionary entry to assist with things like gender neutral drafting and promote the D&I Framework to encourage firms to focus on gender equality
Phase Three will run from the end of February through to March. The Law Society intends for this phase to coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March 2023. The exact outputs of this phase are under discussion, but planning is underway, and they are keen to hear from interested partner sponsors for this phase who would be interested in hosting an event with them.
The D&I Framework
Figures released from the Law Society’s Annual Statistics Report 2021 found that while there has been some improvement with increasing diversity in the legal profession, there’s still work to be done. Solicitors from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds reached 18%, while Black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors working in private practice increased by 6%. However, nearly a third of sole practitioners are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. These solicitors often make the move to sole practice due to barriers to progression to senior levels at larger law firms. Disabled people and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds are not even getting into the profession in sufficient numbers.
The Law Society has developed a new framework to provide firms and organisations with a three steps approach to tackling D&I challenges and creating a lasting impact. As part of this framework, they have created an action plan template as well as links to additional guidance and resources for more detailed help. For those organisations new to the issue this framework will help you to create a systematic, well resourced, approach to meet these challenges. If you are already taking action, it will help you review and identify gaps or areas that need further thought. Further information about the framework is available here:
Press release – Diversity and inclusion framework sets out how the legal profession can create lasting change | The Law Society
Short overview – Three steps to a diversity and inclusion strategy that creates lasting change | The Law Society
Full framework – Diversity and inclusion framework | The Law Society
The Law Society’s initial primary audience is medium to large firms, but they are looking to continually develop the framework to suit our members’ needs, so will be gathering feedback from small firms and in-house lawyers on what other resources they would find helpful. In any event, most organisations can benefit from the strategic approach recommended by the framework.
This framework builds on and replaces their D&I Charter, which was developed over a decade ago. Changes in the workplace and wider society have encouraged the Law Society to update their approach.
As part of this project, they are keen to share examples of best practice from across England and Wales. If you are interested in submitting a D&I case study to be featured on the Law Society’s website, please do not hesitate to get in touch with them.