A statement signed by legal regulators pledging to come down harder on misconduct affecting minority groups is important for visibility purposes, a Westminster Legal Policy Forum conference on equality, diversity and inclusion has heard today.
Regulators for solicitors, barristers, legal executives, costs lawyers and licensed conveyancers signed a statement last year declaring their commitment to tackling ‘counter-inclusive misconduct’.
Chairing a session on the role of regulation in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, Sara Carnegie, director of legal projects at the International Bar Association, asked if the statement was ‘not something the public would assume regulators would be doing anyway? What does it add to the efforts being made by regulation?’
Carnegie told the event that she had seen a proliferation of charters and documents. While 'it’s a very good visible sign of commitment but sometimes the proof is in what then unfolds'.
Rupika Madhura, director of standards at the Bar Standards Board, said one aspect of the statement was visibility. ‘It is important that we do not make assumptions about certain things. It’s important through the public commitments we’re making, important to detail the information out there and collaborate across the board.’
SRA chief executive Paul Philip said the statement made explicit the implicit. ‘It’s an important issue and we have a zero tolerance approach to any or all barriers. We were asked to sign it. We couldn’t see any reason why we wouldn’t sign it.’
Philip spoke about the overrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors in the SRA’s disciplinary work.
‘There has been long-standing overrepresentation of black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors in our enforcement work identified long before the SRA was established,’ he said. ‘This profile is seen in many other professions. Why are people reporting solicitors from this demographic to us? It’s an area we have not looked at before.’
The conference heard that the overrepresentation has come down slightly since the SRA started monitoring the issue but remains ‘statistically significant and worthy of explanation. We have got to get to the bottom of it', Philip said.
The SRA established an independent consortium to examine the issue and a full report will be published by next June.
Asked about the sort of action regulators should take to 'disrupt' processes and behaviours hindering diversity and inclusion, Philip said: 'Culture is a sticky thing. If it was easy to change we would not be talking about it this morning... [We can] issue guidance and warning notices to make people sit up and pay attention but often it is not enough and not when business imperatives conflict with those type of things. We need to identify specific examples and people need to be held to account in disciplinary processes.'
