The Law Society of Singapore has announced the release of “Levelling the Playing Field”, its first-ever report into gender diversity and inclusion in the Singapore legal profession. The data for the report has been gathered over the course of the past two years and examines the experience of female practitioners across the profession, The data…
State Bar publishes first annual report card on the diversity of California’s legal profession
‘Report card’ The State Bar’s “First Annual Report Card on the Diversity of California’s Legal Profession,” (PDF) provides baseline data on the diversity and workplace satisfaction of California’s attorney population across multiple demographic groups and employment sectors. The report brings into stark reality that despite significant growth in the proportion of attorneys who are women…
ABA profile of the legal profession: diversity and well-being
While the number of lawyers nationally has grown faster than the U.S. population, this growth hasn’t been spread evenly across races and ethnicities, according to the American Bar Association’s 2020 Profile of the Legal Profession. (PDF) The ABA Profile of the Legal Profession is a compilation of the latest statistics in the legal profession. In an…
The Bar Standards Board Race Equality Taskforce publishes case studies
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) Race Equality Taskforce has published two case studies to promote racial diversity and inclusion at the Bar. This marks the launch of a series of case studies that will focus on encouraging barristers’ chambers to adopt equality and diversity best practice from across the sector in order to foster a…
LSB tells regulators to develop better understanding of diversity data
In her recent blog, the Chair of the Legal Services Board, said that the regulatory bodies in England and Wales should do more to get a grasp on diversity data. The blog was published after the latest Board meeting and notes that in January the Board agreed with regulators to assess their performance on gathering…
California approves measures to advance equity in attorney discipline
At its July 16 meeting, the State Bar Board of Trustees approved a plan aimed at improving equity in the attorney discipline system, following up on the bar’s first-ever study on racial disparities in the disciplinary system. The first group of reforms aim to expand representation by counsel when an attorney faces a disciplinary investigation….
Victorian Legal Service Board report shows that sexual harassment in the legal workplace is common
On April 1st Victorian Legal Services Commissioner, Fiona McLeay, released data showing that sexual harassment in Victorian legal workplaces is common, and has a disproportionate effect on women. Results showed that 1 in 3 respondents had experienced workplace harassment at some point in their career. As well as this there was a significant gender imbalance in the…
The Bar Standards Board publishes new equality and diversity strategy
On the 7th April, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) published its equality and diversity strategy 2020-2022. The strategy comes on the back of the Board’s report into the same topic, which suggested that whilst the situation in the profession was slowly improving more work still needed to be done. Objectives outlined in the strategy include Addressing…
SRA diversity findings show that representation is improving, but work still needed
Newly released data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), has shown that representation is improving in law firms. The data collected from 186,000 people working at 9,500 law firms across England and Wales shows that nearly half of all solicitors are now women (49%) up 1% since 2017, however, this changes greatly depending on seniority with only 34%…
BSB publishes annual report on diversity at the Bar
On the 31st January, the Bar Standards Board of England and Wales (BSB) published its annual report on diversity at the Bar. The report demonstrates that there has been some progress, with increased diversity and representation across the profession. However, the report also demonstrated that whilst the direction of travel was positive, there is still…