Intense competition between firms eager to demonstrate their diversity credentials and the use of quotas to measure recruitment of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff only serve to undermine equality, Stuart Popham, senior partner at magic circle firm Clifford Chance, has warned.

Popham claimed the trend for firms to declare themselves champions of diversity could discourage BME candidates from applying for positions with a wider range of practices because some may appear to be less diverse, and therefore less likely to recruit them.

He said: ‘In terms of access to the profession, it is not best achieved if it is an all-out competition between law firms to show they are more diverse than the next.

‘It is not a case of saying "don’t compete". We will continue to compete for the best ­people. But we are not – and firms should not be – looking at things like quotas.’

Michael Webster, chairman of the Black Solicitors Network, agreed that quotas alone do not promote diversity, but argued that firms themselves should set clear, measurable targets.

‘In the same way that a firm will set a target to be more profitable… a firm should, as part of its business plan, seek to recruit a more diverse workforce. Any business that takes this issue seriously will set themselves targets.’

Sailesh Mehta, former chairman of the Society of Asian Lawyers and the driving force behind the Diversity Charter ­initiative, which could see FTSE 100 companies quizzing law firms on the ethnicity of panel solicitors, also agreed that quotas were not the answer.

He said: ‘We have always been against quotas… but a huge responsibility is with firms to ensure diversity. The Law Society can only sponsor ­diversity initiatives like the Diversity Charter.’

Popham’s comments come as the Law Society’s Diversity Forum – an umbrella organisation bringing together various ethnic minority representative groups – meets for the first time this week. Proposals up for discussion during Thursday’s meeting include tackling the pay gap between BME solicitors and their white counterparts, ensuring a more diverse judiciary and progressing the Diversity Charter.

Paul Marsh, Law Society President, said: ‘The Law Society believes that the profession should reflect the society it serves. We support independent demographic and practice-type groups and associations that represent the interests of specific sectors of the profession. We are working closely with groups to align and develop [the forum’s] activities to enhance engagement with, and participation from, all sections of the profession.