Weeding out discrimination

Racism and discrimination are abhorrent - and the last place in which they should be tolerated is the legal profession, where practitioners are meant to embody the principles of justice.In theory, that sentence is indisputable.

In practice, the legal profession reflects society - and, sadly, there is racism within our culture.

The solicitors' profession is built on tradition and a historically strong element of the old-boys' network.

As a result, ethnic minorities and women have struggled to break down the edifices of white, male domination.As we report in our news pages this week, there are still barriers to be overcome.

According to on-going research at the College of Law, ethnic minority students continue to face a more difficult task in obtaining training contracts and permanent positions at law firms than do their white counterparts.There are complicated reasons for this - not least being the indirect socio-economic explanation that firms favour recruits from the more established, traditional universities.

How much outright racism is involved is debatable and almost impossible to quantify, although it would be foolish to deny its existence completely.But one important point which must not be overlooked in this discussion is that the governing bodies have not been sitting on their hands.

Both the Law Society and the Bar Council have launched initiatives to encourage and assist prospective ethnic minority lawyers.Indeed, the statistics are not that depressing.

As the Law Society points out, nearly 20% of those on the legal practice course are from the ethnic minority community, compared with about 13% ten years ago.That marginally less than 6% of the solicitors' profession consists of ethnic minority lawyers - which is roughly the equivalent of the wider ethnic minority population - is more a reflection of slow evolutionary change than a lack of goodwill.

Gradually, that percentage will increase.The next and perhaps more difficult challenge will be for those lawyers to work their way up through the hierarchical structure of private practice, where they are about half as likely as white lawyers to be partners.