Report: ethnic minority law firms are disadvantaged by minimum contract size




The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has for the first time admitted that ethnic minority law firms could be disproportionately affected by some elements of the Carter reforms.



In a draft regulatory impact assessment on police station boundary reforms, the LSC said the proposal to introduce a minimum contract size of £50,000 was likely to disproportionately impact on firms with a majority of ethnic minority partners.

It estimated the change would have the biggest impact in London, where 37.5% of ethnic minority firms would lose their criminal contracts, compared to 18.9% of white majority-owned firms.



The plans to implement Lord Carter's proposals for new boundary areas, fixed fees and new working arrangements for criminal defence work, and police station and court duty, are intended to simplify the market in advance of the introduction of price-competitive tendering. In his original report, Lord Carter said the recommendations should not have a negative impact on ethnic minority firms and solicitors.



The LSC accepted that ethnic minority clients tended to prefer to be represented by ethnic minority lawyers, and argued that there would be a sufficient number of ethnic minority fee-earners in those firms that have contracts for this to continue, even though there will be fewer firms owned by a majority of ethnic minority partners.



Stephen Friday, chairman of the Black Solicitors Network, said this argument did not hold water. 'Black and minority ethnic [BME] clients who find themselves at a police station and who do not speak English as their first language will not be able to find the ethnic minority lawyers in other firms easily - it's a question of visibility,' he said.



Sundeep Bhatia, joint vice-chairman of the Society of Asian Lawyers, said the other factor was the glass ceiling that many ethnic minority lawyers faced in larger white majority-owned firms.



'BME practitioners have been able to set up their own practices to advance their careers; for many, these proposals will cut off that option and their standing in the profession will be diminished.'



Law Society statistics show that, across the profession, 36% of white solicitors are partners, compared to 22% of ethnic minority solicitors. The latter are more likely to be sole practitioners.



Mr Bhatia said the draft assessment reflected what he and others had been saying for the last three years. 'This is a retrograde step for the criminal justice system and for the rights of BME firms - it is winding the clock back 20 years, to where there will be token BME solicitors in firms,' he said.



Mr Friday added: 'This is just one aspect of the whole proposals - the effect of price-competitive tendering will be much greater.'



Derek Hill, director of the Criminal Defence Service, said: 'The LSC is committed to promoting equality and diversity within the legal profession. We have set out how we intend to ensure this in our consultation on police station reforms. I would encourage anyone with views on these proposals to respond to our consultation.



The consultation runs until 10 April.



Catherine Baksi