The Law Society is investigating allegations that professional indemnity brokers and insurers have discriminated against firms with African and Asian-sounding names, the Gazette has learned.

The Society received a complaint to its professional indemnity insurance helpline from a solicitor in Birmingham, claiming that insurers were providing cover late or not at all to firms which sounded as if they were run by solicitors from ethnic minorities. The solicitor said she had spoken to other firms in the region who had experienced similar problems.

She also contacted the Black Solicitors Network, which had received similar complaints from four of its members. The BSN has pressed the Law Society and Solicitors Regulation Authority to investigate the issue, which both bodies have said they will do.

BSN chair Cordella Bart-Stewart said that while the evidence was anecdotal, the complaint made to the helpline was ‘not an isolated case’.

She added: ‘In the run-up to the 1 October renewal deadline, firms of solicitors with African or Asian surnames were being offered cover late, or not at all. Those with Asian names were being offered cover one week before the deadline. African firms were being offered cover even later than that.

‘What has been suggested is that brokers are aware [that some insurers are unwilling to cover African and Asian firms] and have not been putting proposals in. Some African firms’ proposals may not have gone in at all… It is firms with four partners or fewer that have been specifically targeted.’

Bart-Stewart said she had asked the Law Society to provide data on when firms were provided with quotes, if at all, and whether firms with ethnic minority names were paying higher premiums. She added that if evidence of discrimination is found the matter should be referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said the Society would be investigating the matter ‘as fully as we can’. He noted that there were ‘snippets of information’ which could point to racial bias, but more evidence was needed. The SRA also said it would investigate the matter.

A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers said insurers provide cover based on ‘business risk, not colour’.