The SRA are hoping to take giant steps towards improving diversity within the legal profession by rolling out a new tool that will allow firms to compare themselves with similar practices in November.
With the aim to inject confidence into firms to tackle the issue, Chair of the SRA’s Equality and Inclusion Committee, Jane Furniss, feels it is critical that all firms take the issue of diversity seriously.
She said: “We consider it to be critical that all firms take their responsibility in this area seriously. Many do, but some don’t.”
“Our view is that requesting firms to gather and collate this data has an important impact in its own right.”
“However, firms need to go further than simply sending it to the SRA. We want firms to consider it themselves and ask important questions about their policies and procedures.”
Ms Furniss has heaped praise on solicitors on the whole for their response to the request for diversity data earlier this year, of which you can see Scott Rees and Co’s Diversity report here, but says there is still significant concern over the lack of opportunity in the market, especially for BAME solicitor and women.
Speaking about the issue of diversity within the legal profession, Scott Rees and Co partner, David Byrne, outlined how they were right behind future encouragement and championed their own policy.
He said: “Diversity within the legal industry is extremely important, as it should be in any profession.”
“We live in a multi-cultural environment whereby we welcome many different people from different ethnic backgrounds into our country and in the case of personal injury it is just as feasible that they may need our help as much as anyone, which is why it is vital that legal firms are reacting to this and doing their utmost to improve levels of diversity.”
“Here at Scott Rees and Co we welcome people from all races, religions and gender to come and be a part of our team and at any given time we have the ability to cover up to over 10 different language speaking clients.”
“We strive to ensure that everyone is treated on an equal level and this is reflected by the results of our diversity data report and we are proud of our record when it comes to providing multi-lingual services to a wider variety of claimants across the UK.”
Image source(s)
1. Solicitors Regulation Authority; https://www.sra.org.uk/home/home.page