Lawyers should tackle overt racism and sexism with humour, Baroness Warsi, a solicitor and former chair of the Conservative party, advised attendees at the launch of the Law Society’s Ethnic Minority Lawyers Division last night.

Repeating back to someone what they had said was also a powerful tool, Warsi (pictured) suggested. 'Repeating back to them in a really loud voice when people are around, is a good way of getting them to backtrack.’

Warsi, who did her legal training at the Crown Prosecution Service and Home Office immigration department, was the first Muslim woman to serve in the cabinet. She resigned as a minister last year over the government’s response to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Warsi said she was less worried about overt racism and sexism, but ‘more about respectable forms of racism and sexism couched in various ways’.

For instance, she said, ‘when you’re left out of a meeting you should have been told about, when you haven’t been told about an important document, when you’re not told about the rules of the game until after the game has been played and everyone has gone home’.