We must embed equality and diversity in workplace

Legal profession has gone from being mainly male to fairly evenly split but there’s more to do, says Iain Burke

TWO recent events brought home to me the importance and the benefits of equality and diversity in the workplace.

The launch of the LGBT+ group The Glass Network’s These are our principles campaign features high-profile legal and public figures, including Scottish Law Commissioner Hector Mcqueen and former solicitor First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, stating the importance of having an open dialogue on equality and diversity and setting out key principles of law and facts about LGBT+ equality in the workplace,

It’s essential to embed equality and diversity in our dayto-day working practice – not just because we are solicitors entrusted to apply the law, but because as a profession we want talented individuals, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, religion, race or social background, to join us. We want a diverse profession that represents the society it serves, and most of all, we want solicitors to be proud of the profession they are part of and help it thrive.

The Law Society has worked hard to promote equality and diversity, carrying out extensive research, developing an equality and diversity strategy, staging events and introducing equality standards and guides for solicitors. But more needs to be done. Over a quarter of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the UK choose not to disclose their sexuality or gender identity at work.

This leads me to the Law Society’s Equality Means Business event. A number of studies have shown the business benefits of equality and diversity. Senior management teams made up of a relatively even mix of men and women perform better than those which are either all, or largely, male. Balance is good for business.

The legal profession has gone from being mainly male to fairly evenly split, with the majority tipping towards women last year at 51 per cent. Career progress, however, has yet to reflect this change. Equal numbers of men and women have been entering the legal profession for decades and women qualifying as solicitors now far outnumber men, yet the majority of those in senior positions are male.

The Law Society’s Let’s Talk Progression campaign highlighted a number of questions we and the profession need to tackle. Who is progressing? Who isn’t? Why? A lack of ambition, of ability, of opportunity? Another area to consider is why men are not choosing law (currently, two-thirds of newly-qualified solicitors are women) and what, if anything, should we do to ensure that the profession is diverse.

The dialogue on progression emanated from the substantial gender pay gap in the profession.

The Law Society has published a set of 10 Equality Standards along with an Equality Toolkit which are designed to help employers reach their equality goals and eliminate pay inequality.

We now have several firms who are our ‘Equality Standard bearers’. I’d encourage you to join them and reap the rewards. Iain Burke is Convener of the Law Society of Scotland Equality and Diversity Committee