Mixed messages in Law Soc diversity report

A report by the Law Society has argued that law firms are improving on diversity matters, though further progress is still required.

The report covered the work of the Law Society's diversity and inclusion charter, which aims to measure firms' performance in promoting diversity for their staff and clients, as well as changes to workplace demographics. The 177 firms that are signed up to the charter comprise over a third of all solicitors in private practice and range from small high-street firms to international City practices. Of these firms, 117 improved in terms of their performance in what the report calls "key diversity metrics", which included assigning responsibility for meeting targets, investing in supplier diversity and "setting equality, diversity and inclusion objectives", which were not specified.

Other areas of improvement were said to be the sharing of "good practice" and "building stronger leadership", but the report was less positive about the lack of progress in more important areas, such as career development prospects and equal pay.

Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, president of the Law Society, said: "By signing up to the charter, firms across the country are actively demonstrating their commitment to improve their equality and diversity practices. The results really show that size doesn't matter: it's not just top 100 firms that are seeing better results; smaller firms are equally as committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. Despite progress, there's still some way to go, with the partnership profile of most firms still showing under-representation of women, BAME, disabled and LGBT solicitors. The leadership of many firms are actively confronting this challenge."