Lawyers make the grade in BAME 'power lists'

Eight lawyers including six magic circle partners have been named in a power list celebrating the best BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) business leaders.

Partners at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters, Slaughter and May and Clifford Chance appear in the annual EMpower Role Model list.

The list, published in partnership with the Financial Times, showcases the top 100 BAME business leaders. This year it includes 10 lawyers, including three in-house.

A separate list also celebrates the top 30 BAME Future Leaders. There are six lawyers on that list.

The highest placed solicitor on the role model list is 11th placed Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Timothy Wilkins. Funke Abimbola, general counsel at pharmaceutical company Roche, is 13^th.

Other magic circle representatives include Tom Shropshire, partner at Linklaters (20), Slaughter and May partners Sarah Lee (28) and Nilufer von Bismarck (66) and Habib Motani, partner at Clifford Chance (29).

The other in-house lawyers are Simon Dowson-Collins, general counsel at publishing house HarperCollins, who is 91st, and 55th placed Shanika Amarasekera, general counsel at British Business Bank.

The future leaders include Charlene Brown, an in-house lawyer at BNY Melon who is ranked second and Claudine Adeyemi, associate solicitor at Mishcon de Reya, who is seventh.

Also included were young lawyers from Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Slaughter and May and CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang. 

All the lawyers included in both lists are published below.