Closing the Opportunity Gap: Promoting Social Mobility in Law through Inclusive Hiring Practices in the UK

Nov 30, 2023

Written By Lewis Ogg

Inclusive hiring practices, as have been adopted by many law firms and legal institutions across the country, are the foundation for social mobility in the legal sector and can be a catalyst for bridging the opportunity gap for the next generation. This article will explore what diversity and inclusion measures have already been taken in pursuit of this goal, what impact they have had, and what steps we still need to take.

The current landscape: assessing the opportunity gap in UK law firms

According to recent studies from the SRA, there remains a significant underrepresentation of people of colour and individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds in mid to large-tier law firms nationally. Perhaps the most striking demonstration of disparity is that 22% of lawyers were educated in fee-paying schools (compared with 7.5% of the general population), whereas only 17% of lawyers came from a ‘lower socioeconomic background’ (compared with 39% of the general population).

When looking at statistics of this kind, it is important to remember that it will include individuals who qualified as lawyers over 40 years ago, so it may take a generation for the impact of our current D&I policies to become clear. However, current trends are positive, with most Silver and Magic Circle firms having over 20% BME associates (compared to 18% amongst the general population). However, as this more diverse generation of associates ages, the question will be whether firms can translate associate diversity to partner diversity.

While current trainee statistics for top firms are positive, we shouldn’t overlook that the opportunity gap still remains for a variety of reasons. Quality of education remains an enduring reason for the discrepancy between socioeconomic attainment, with students from working-class communities having significantly less money invested into their educational development than those with the opportunity to attend private and or grammar schools.

Other contributing factors include financial constraints, which hamper individuals’ ability to self-fund conversion courses or SQE programmes, and lack of exposure to the legal profession; without a family member or mentor in the law, many do not consider the career attainable.

These obstacles are considerable drivers in perpetuating the lack of diversity in the legal sector. While law firms are generally highly engaged in D&I recruitment, they are looking at law students at the end of their educational journey. In contrast, many of these factors prevent individuals from reaching that stage in the first place.

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Inclusive hiring practices: bridging the opportunity gap

Inclusive hiring practices are an approach to recruitment that actively seeks to eliminate biases and provide equal opportunities for candidates, irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds.

Many firms have begun to take a holistic approach to recruitment, which involves assessing candidates on a comprehensive criteria of skills and experience, which can be used to develop a better understanding of an individual’s potential. Another useful approach which has been adopted by many firms in recent years is anonymous recruitment. This strategy aims to remove personal information that may lead to unconscious bias during the decision-making process. Typically, this will be your name and the names of the educational institutions you went to. Anonymous recruitment is a simple yet highly effective means of mitigating unconscious bias, helping create a fairer, more skills-based application process.

In trying to bridge the opportunity gap at an earlier stage, many firms and educational institutions have begun significant outreach programmes targeted at reducing recruitment inequality in targeted fields. Two popular programmes are ‘10,000 Black Interns’, which offers paid internships to black students, and ‘Aspiring Solicitors’, which offers services, talks, and resources to students from a range of underrepresented backgrounds. There are dozens more of these programmes, with firms often even running their own individual mentorship or insight schemes for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Challenges and solutions in implementing inclusive hiring practices:

More inclusive hiring practices are often met with resistance from individuals inside and outside law firms. Generally, this resistance comes from the belief that such practices unfairly disadvantage certain applicants, typically white, privately educated men. This criticism has been increasingly overcome amongst recruiters as it has become widely accepted that inclusive, contextual and anonymous skills-based recruitment levels the playing field, only appearing to disadvantage certain groups because of their existing overrepresentation in that field.

Inclusivity does not end with recruitment; it should be an ethos adopted by the whole firm, from trainees to partners. Several Magic Circle firms have begun to appreciate this point and are seeking to correct imbalances in corporate structure. Freshfields and Clifford Chance have committed to increasing the proportion of female partners to 40% by 2026, and Linklaters is already over 40% and is now moving towards 50% female partnership. In these cases of leadership commitment, it is vital that firms are public about their pledges and build them into their business plans for upcoming years. In this way, there is both social and commercial pressure on the leadership to deliver on their promises.

The role of legal education: equipping candidates for inclusive hiring

Most university careers departments have now adjusted to the new world of more inclusive hiring practices and offer development workshops for aspects of the process like psychometric tests or assessment centres. Additionally, there are a huge number of free resources on websites like AllAboutLaw, which not only explain every aspect of the hiring process but also explore tried and tested strategies for succeeding in them.

Mentorship, either through universities or social programmes, has become a hugely valuable asset for prospective applicants, especially those who perhaps don’t already know someone working within the law. Mentors can be vital in helping prospective lawyers navigate the challenges of their early career and in making sure they make decisions that are effective for their own career aspirations.

Beyond hiring: sustaining social mobility within law firms

As mentioned above, inclusivity should not end at the point of hiring; it should be an ongoing conversation between staff and management. One important part of that is offering professional development opportunities to employees of diverse backgrounds. This continued investment enables long-term success and career advancement, helping to retain balanced representation into partnership level.

Developing professional skills is only one aspect of pursuing an inclusive firm; this also needs to be underpinned by an inclusive firm culture. Many firms now have support networks which bring together employees of different backgrounds for regular social activities so that individuals do not feel isolated in the workplace and have a support network where they can discuss issues they have encountered with.

Conclusion

Progress has been made in pursuit of a more diverse and equal legal industry, but we mustn't become complacent and allow these positive trends to stagnate. As members of the legal field, we have not only a moral imperative to ensure that this drive towards equality continues but also an economic one in cementing the continued success and relevancy of the industry in the future.

Diversity