The Black Solicitors Network's diversity league tables are fuelling debate at top firms, says Michael Webster


The Black Solicitors Network (BSN) has made great strides over the last year under the leadership of our immediate past chairman, Stephen Friday. Membership is at an all-time high of over 5,500 – testament to the organisation’s increasing popularity and influence.



During the past year, the BSN’s student training and mentoring sub-committee has organised career workshops for student members and other organisations, including City firms and local authorities. The workshops provide advice on CVs and training contract applications, as well as giving attendees a first-hand opportunity to speak to senior practitioners.



The BSN has also been at the forefront of the ongoing battle over the implementation of government legal aid reforms by the Legal Services Commission. In July, the BSN secured undertakings from government and the commission that a cumulative impact assessment would be carried out to ensure the reforms comply with its public duty obligations under the Race Relations Amendment Act.



This year, we published the second edition of our Diversity League Tables; the groundbreaking survey that analyses the ethnicity and gender of the top 100 law firms. This year’s tables were expanded to include international firms, particularly those from the US. While the survey itself is useful in terms of ‘numbers on the board’, it is just a starting point in the debate around increasing diversity within the legal profession. As I said in the first edition, the publication was inspired by the absence of data on the central ingredient that shapes a law firm and its ideals – namely its staff, be they equity partners, solicitors, trainees or paralegals.



The tables are important because they enable firms to compare themselves with their peers. The results have helped firms to critically evaluate whether they are doing enough to recruit, retain and promote a more diverse work-force. The view from the City firms is increasingly in step with our own view that diversity within the legal profession can no longer be regarded as simply an aspiration. It should be an imperative.



Guy Beringer QC, senior partner of Allen & Overy, commented in this year’s edition: ‘Bodies such as the BSN provide a stronger and visible influence on behaviour across the profession, which has introduced a new era of accountability. Our major clients increasingly demand a commitment to diversity as a prerequisite for the engagement of advisers, and this is helping to change the competitive landscape. Similarly, government regulators are beginning to take a more active and interventionist stance in order to achieve a more diverse and inclusive profession. Greater transparency now means that mandatory disclosure is an effective tool which is likely to be more widely used.’



This year, 63 of the top 100 firms took part – a 14% increase on 2006. For 2008, we want to further increase the number of firms participating in our survey.



Firms that continually fail to provide diversity statistics risk being increasingly marginalised, as future lawyers may not wish to submit applications to firms that do not take the issue of diversity seriously. Even more worrying for such firms, corporate clients may well remove them from their panels or prevent them from pitching for new work.



During the next 12 months, we aim to continue representing our members in relation to legal aid reform, especially as we enter the crucial consultation period for best value tendering. Our aim has always been to ensure that a tangible BME supplier base remains in existence, and we will challenge the commission and the government to ensure that the new round of tendering opportunities are conducted on a level playing field for all firms – large or small.



As for our administration, we intend to overhaul the existing committee structure in order to communicate more effectively with our enlarged membership.



This year promises to be a very exciting one for the BSN and the legal profession in general and I hope I will be able to usefully contribute to the challenges that lie ahead.



Michael Webster is chairman of the Black Solicitors Network