Celebrating diversity in law

The latest diversity data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) shows that 58% of lawyers are from a professional background. 

 “Anyone who has the talent, ambition and capability to join our profession should be welcomed and enabled to progress as far as their drive will take them. Diversity is a strength and an asset; it leads to better decision-making and stronger businesses.” says Lubna Shuja

To play its part in improving socio-economic diversity in financial and professional services,  the Law Society was a key member of the City of London socio-economic diversity taskforce launched in 2020. 

As part of the taskforce’s consultation on how to encourage employers to foster social mobility, the Law Society partnered with local law societies to run 10 regional roundtables to discuss the issue.

The consultation process gathered the views of lawyers and diversity and inclusion professionals on a variety of topics, including data collection, setting targets, and what they’d like to see from regulators, the government and the Law Society itself. The key findings are available online.

The Law Society has welcomed the taskforce’s final report, published in 2022, which sets a goal that 50% of senior leaders in the financial and professional services sector should come from a non-professional background by 2030.

To achieve this, the report sets out a five-point pathway, backed by the Law Society, that any organisation can take:

1. assign a senior leader responsible for socio-economic diversity
   
2. collect data on employee socio-economic backgrounds by 2025
   
3. take action to increase socio-economic diversity at senior levels and monitor what works
   
4. set targets based on data, considering their specific context, such as starting point, size, location, sub-sector
   
5. publish data and what interventions have worked.