Against the odds

Despite legislation, solicitors with disabilities still face impediments in the workplace.

The biggest obstacle is overcoming hurdles within the legal profession, reports Michael Gerrard

Solicitors living with disability argue that more could be done to improve their opportunities within a profession that still appears to be struggling to coming to terms with their needs.

East London-based sole practitioner Amarjit Singh Devgun, the newly elected chairman of the Law Society's Group for Solicitors with Disabilities (GSD), recently called for a change in thinking so that his members' requirements are properly taken into account by the solicitors' practice rules (see [2002] Gazette, 23 May, 5).

To him, much of the talk on the matter has been too superficial

He says: 'Law firms are trying to look politically correct rather than trying to achieve real equality and diversity.

When well-meaning people look at disability, they tend to view it as a "bolt-on" to something already decided upon.'

In particular, he is referring to the habit of firms or court authorities to add ramps to buildings for wheelchair access, but with little thought given to obstacles that are already there.

As someone who has long suffered from a spine deformity, it is a subject with which he is familiar.

Of course, not all disabled solicitors are wheelchair-bound, and Mr Devgun's predecessor at the GSD, Andrew Fleming, argues that on average, physical adaptations to the office should cost no more than 700.

An epileptic, Mr Fleming is keen to emphasise that the wheelchair stereotype needs to be challenged and that in many cases little physical change is required to accommodate a disabled colleague.

But office obstacles are just a small part of the challenges facing a solicitor with disabilities.

By far the greatest hurdle is in overcoming prejudice within the profession, however unintentional it might be.

Ed Fletcher, of Southport-based Fletchers Solicitors, was an able-bodied personal injury solicitor for two years before a motorcycle accident in 1999 left him a paraplegic.

He says: 'The biggest problem disabled people have as solicitors is not to make physical changes to offices, but to change other people's perceptions of us.'

Mr Devgun agrees that many in the profession have a 'mental block' when it comes to dealing with those he represents, and it is clear this view sweeps across all areas of practice, ranging from how you are expected to conduct the job through to the inevitably thorny subject of recruitment.

Examples of the lack of accommodation in the practice rules abound throughout day-to-day practice, he points out, such as the situation where deaf or visually impaired solicitors are required to take evidence direct from a client, with no dispensation given for the use of a third party such as a sign language expert.

However, he is encouraged by the generally positive approach of the Society's leadership to disabled colleagues.

But much work is required to change practices in the wider legal world.

In particular, the struggle to gain employment remains top of the list of grievances.

It appears that however much law firms proclaim themselves committed to equal opportunities, the odds remain stacked against those who admit to a disability on their application forms.

But as Mr Fletcher maintains, when rejecting an application, a firm can find many more other reasons to give apart from the obvious one.

In addition, conditions may be introduced on an advert that - though inoffensive at first glance - would appear to discriminate needlessly against the disabled.

A clear example of this is the insistence that an applicant must possess a driving licence, even when the job is city-based.

Mr Fleming, a partner at Northampton-based Lawrence Hamblin, notes: 'Some firms in central London require you to have a full driving licence, despite the existence of things like the government's access to work scheme, which provides transport for the disabled.'

At the same time as the GSD is trying to effect a change in attitude from within the profession, legislation has been introduced to force through changes nationally.

Even so, many disabled solicitors think its effect has only brought marginal improvements.

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) is a wide-ranging piece of legislation, which as the title suggests, hits out at many forms of disabled discrimination.

Up until now, what little debate there has been in legal circles on the subject has tended to concentrate on business opportunities which it could provide, or on how to service clients, but little thought has been given to how it could affect solicitors themselves.

In particular, for those trying to carve out a career, it not only addresses physical obstacles, but also employment opportunities.

The Act compels all service providers, including law firms, to make 'reasonable adjustments' to their premises to enable disabled people to use their services by October 2004.

But its remit over subjects such as employment discrimination came into effect nearly three years ago.

Ironically, considering the largely woeful manner in which most law firms have handled the DDA in its present form, the body which campaigns on this matter - the Disability Rights Commission - has launched a review of the legislation.

It has announced several proposals to tighten up the DDA, such as making it easier for the disabled to prove discrimination at employment tribunals.

The experience of disabled solicitors up until now would suggest that legislation will only come into its own once fellow lawyers see the person beyond their limitations.

Michael Gerrard is a freelance journalist