'Elitist and exclusionary': New LSB report targets systemic bias in the law

A damning new report has said the legal profession is failing on multiple levels to address diversity issues and could even be in breach of lawful duties to protect minorities.

The Legal Services Board said there was a clear case for intervention based on the persistent gaps in diversity and factors holding back change in the profession.

Evidence from frontline regulators and wider analysis of the sector identified ‘deep-rooted systemic barriers’ to equality and diversity.

In a paper being presented to the board at its meeting tomorrow, the LSB centres on ‘obscured and inaccessible pathways’ into the profession, including financial hurdles and elitist attitudes regarding the image of a lawyer. Women, minority ethnic groups and disabled lawyers remain underrepresented in the law, particularly at senior and management levels, while bullying, harassment, discrimination and other forms of behavioural misconduct are particularly prominent.

The LSB says lawyers’ mental health and wellbeing are ‘routinely compromised’ because of cultures of excessive working hours, high workloads, lack of autonomy and metrics such as billable hours. These issues are often experienced most acutely by the most marginalised groups in the profession.

‘The risks of doing nothing or not enough include: a profession that is not representative of the public that it serves and a profession that is characterised by inequitable, exclusionary and unhealthy practices,’ said the LSB. ‘Failure to act could also leave regulators vulnerable to legal challenge for breach of relevant statutory duties.’

The LSB’s proposal to address these issues is a new statutory policy statement that would be issued to every frontline regulator with four specific outcomes.

Regulators would have to take evidence-based action to encourage a diverse profession, ensure their approaches and processes do not undermine efforts to increase diversity, and support fair, flexible and accessible pathways within and back into the professions. Regulators such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority would be under a duty to ensure that law firms uphold professional conduct, behaviours and competencies to encourage a diverse profession.

The LSB would give regulators up to a year to assess current activity against these outcomes and up to two years to show they have taken effective steps.

The draft statement of policy was due to be signed off by the board this week, followed by a 12-week consultation period starting in the autumn.