On 25 October, the Law Society published the first annual report on the progress of its Diversity and Inclusion Charter. Some 180 firms and in-house practices are now signatories to the charter, thereby demonstrating their commitment to tackling the challenges around building an inclusive legal profession.

The Law Society’s reports on the career experiences of women, black and ethnic minority, and lesbian, gay and bisexual solicitors were published on 15 November. They show the scale of the challenge that the profession faces in its efforts to become truly inclusive.

There is much of which the solicitors’ profession can be proud. In terms of entry and participation, black and ethnic minority solicitors are represented in greater proportion than their presence in the wider population. For some years now women have made up the larger part of new entrants to the profession at around 60%. So, if we look at the overall picture, it seems pretty good and perhaps barriers to entry to the profession are not a significant issue.

It is when we look more closely at the progress of individual solicitors through the organisations in which they work and at their choice of workplace (if choice it be) that we see a more complex and worrying picture starting to emerge.

We know that BME solicitors are working overwhelmingly in small firms and are disproportionately present in legal aid work. We know also that women solicitors tend to be more present in what are generally less lucrative and prestigious areas of work. The question that we have to ask is whether BME solicitors and women solicitors chose these areas of practices or types of firms positively, or whether they find themselves channelled in those directions, or indeed with no other choice because entry to other areas is disproportionately difficult for them.

The Society’s research puts forward very clear messages about areas that need to be addressed for women, BME and LGB solicitors to progress into and through the profession with the same opportunities as white heterosexual males.

Respondents to the survey challenged the Law Society to take action in several key areas. 1. Do more to promote inclusive practices in the sector.2. Provide mechanisms to enable people to challenge discrimination.3. Play a lead role in challenging the current culture, especially in regard to management practices and perceptions of '24/7' client expectations.4. Provide information on, support and promote the use of positive action, mentors and coaches.5. Encourage the collection of better diversity monitoring data to provide an impetus for change.6. Provide written guidelines on effective diversity management and contemporary people management practices.7. Provide training and workshops in equality and diversity as well as developing professional skills.

The Law Society is working closely with employers of solicitors and groups representing women, BME and LGB solicitors to find a way forward through all of this. What is clear is that some of the approaches to improving diversity that have been followed up to now are not making an impact on the scale or timetable that we would wish.

In recent years, attention has turned towards questions of social mobility. The government-sponsored initiative which is still headed by Alan Milburn is putting forward challenges to all of the professions to become more inclusive and to help to address the slowing social mobility that we see in British society. As a forty-something who benefited from state education and a full grant to enable me to go to university, the first person in my family to do so, I have a particular view on the causes of increasing social immobility. It may seem unfair or unrealistic for government to expect employers to address through their own efforts the impact of changes to the education system on social mobility. But it is a challenge that the legal profession has a great commitment to meet. So the Law Society is working with the profession and with the Legal Services Board to develop a standard set of measures to enable us to assess how we are improving social mobility through our efforts.

Which brings me neatly on to the importance of monitoring. The LSB is planning to consult on whether employers of solicitors should be placed under a mandatory obligation to report on the diversity profile of their organisations. My reservations about this only extend as far as the fact that I worry that a mandatory obligation may increase reluctance to engage with the diversity and inclusion agenda, when we are having great success through taking a very inclusive consultative approach based on winning the hearts and minds of decision-makers in the employers of solicitors.

However, we should not be in any doubt about the importance of monitoring. Unless we know where we are starting from we can’t find a way forward. Unless we measure trends over time we can’t understand which interventions are having a positive impact and which are not. For a long while, work on diversity and inclusion has been assessed largely on the basis of inputs: on the numbers of work experience schemes offered; on the numbers and ingenuity of training approaches to assist women solicitors; on mentoring programmes for minority ethnic professionals. This might be because of the anxiety that there is around setting targets for change.

Those inputs are all laudable. Some of them will have been more effective than others. But the only measure that really counts is around the changing face of the profession. Is the participation of women at partner level in firms increasing or decreasing? Are black and minority ethnic solicitors finding their way into firms and in-house teams across the legal sector or only in pockets? Do lesbian, gay and bisexual solicitors feel able to participate fully in the business and social life of their firm or do they hide part of themselves away? Do lawyers with disabilities have the same progression opportunities as all others?

This is why the Law Society’s charter includes a commitment from signatories to monitor and publish the data that they obtain. This is how we will know that we are making progress or not. The Society will continue its work with the profession through the Diversity and Inclusion Charter to build on the progress that has been made and the commitment that undoubtedly exists across the solicitors’ profession.

Stephen Ward is communications director and diversity champion at the Law Society