Race equality in the workplace
Updated 9 April 2025
Why do we need to focus on race equality?
Our firm diversity data report shows that there has been a steady increase in the representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers working in law firms. Since 2015 this has risen from 14% to 19% in 2023. This compares to 15% of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people across the workforce in England, Scotland and Wales.
However, this representation is not consistent across firm sizes. Only 8% of partners in the largest law firms (50+ partners) come from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. This compares to 36% of partners in one partner firms.
The issue is explored further in The 1% Study carried out by extense in 2022. The study shone a light on the data showing that only 1% of partners at major UK law firms were Black.
Find out more from our law firm diversity data tool.
What do we mean by race equality?
People from all ethnicities and backgrounds should experience equal access, treatment and outcomes throughout their working life. Whether it is securing a job, accessing training, or receiving a promotion, employees should feel empowered and capable of reaching their full potential at work.
Research on race equality in the profession
We know that progress has been made on access to the profession. However, research highlights that there are still some barriers, particularly in relation to retention and progression.
The Law Society did research to understand the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors at different points in their careers. It showed that retention rates for Black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors were lower in larger City firms than for their White peers. The research also showed that almost all participants in the study had experienced some level of microaggression based on their ethnicity.
Working in the legal profession is widely regarded as a high-stress career choice. Law Care's research to understand the impact of work culture and working practices on wellbeing, showed that stress was higher for people from minority ethnic groups. Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers reported higher levels of burnout compared to their White colleagues.
The LSB has published research into the systemic barriers to equality, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. This showed that some of the barriers identified disproportionately affected Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers, such as bullying and harassment and elitist perceptions of the profession. The latter mirrors our research on differential outcomes in professional assessments. Minority ethnic participants spoke about their perceptions that the profession was unwelcoming to people from different backgrounds, and how that impacted their confidence when completing assessments.
As well as the moral case for addressing these disparities in the legal profession, there is a strong business case for encouraging a more diverse and inclusive profession. Employers who take action to ensure equal progression and participation in the workplace, for people from all Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, will benefit. From attracting and retaining the best people, addressing skill shortages, and improving performance in their processes.
Taking steps towards race equality in the workplace
To achieve race equality in the workplace, concerted efforts need to be made across the entire employee lifecycle. Below are some practical tools and resources that you may find useful when thinking about how you can improve race equality in your workplace.
All law firms are required to collect, report and publish workforce diversity data (Standard 1.5 of the Code of Conduct for Firms), including ethnicity. The data allows us to produce a high-level picture of diversity in law firms across England and Wales. They can also be used to benchmark your firm against the wider legal profession using our law firm diversity data tool.
You can use your diversity data to compare your firm against national datasets. This can be particularly useful for smaller firms who are recruiting within their local area, to see how well they match diversity in the local population.
It is important to monitor the diversity of your recruitment process, but you should also carry out diversity monitoring of your staff throughout the employee lifecycle. This will help you identify any gaps in the retention and progression of any particular group which will allow you to be targeted in your interventions.
For firms with a larger workforce, you can get a better picture if you look at intersectional data, for example looking separately at Black men and Black women. A progression gap for Black women that is not present for Black men, may require a different initiative than if the gap was present for all Black staff.
InterLaw Diversity Forum have also developed some best practice guidance on diversity monitoring.
We have produced a separate targeted resource on inclusive measures for recruitment, retention and progression. There is other guidance which is useful including the CIPD general guide on inclusive recruitment practices and InterLaw Diversity Forum's inclusive hiring toolkit.
Looking specifically at relevant practices in recruitment to improve race equality, one of the first things you can do is review your job adverts. You should remove biased language, for example not asking for a 'good cultural fit' in a job description. This could be off-putting to someone who does not see themselves in your current culture. You could also review your advertising material, and make sure any visuals of your staff workforce are representative of the diversity at your workplace.
You may also consider working in partnership with recruitment agencies or platforms which specialise in attracting Black, Asian or minority ethnic candidates. This could help you reach excellent candidates who you may not have attracted otherwise.
Another step is to make sure you have a diverse recruitment panel. Having a diverse recruitment panel gives an immediate visual indicator that you are genuine in wanting to attract a broad range of applicants, which could put candidates more at ease. It will also bring diversity of thought to your recruitment panel. To reduce the possibility of unconscious bias, you could also consider anonymising applications and CVs where possible.
The video below is part of a series of videos we did around race. The first three minutes that will autoplay include practical steps you can take around recruitment, or you can watch the entire video.
SRA Chair Anna Bradley and Lubna Shuja, solicitor at Legal Swan solicitors, former President of the Law Society and Council member for Sole Practitioners.
Please note: we recorded this video in 2020, where using the acronym 'BAME' for 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' was best practice. We would not use this acronym today, but this is a good example of how fast language, particularly around diversity, can evolve.
We recognise that smaller firms and sole practitioners may not have the resources or staff to implement resource-intensive recruitment practices. But there are always things that you can do to implement good practice in your recruitment.
Potential candidates will more than likely check your website and social media when considering whether you are the right organisation for them. Promoting your diversity strategy or initiatives publicly can give candidates a clear picture of your commitment to race equality in the workplace. It can provide weight and evidence to justify the inclusiveness of your workplace culture. It can also be a good place to show quotes or testimonies from current employees on their experiences of working with you.
Another way to promote good practice is to publish ethnicity pay gap data. It is currently mandatory for firms with over 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap data. While not currently mandatory, it is good practice to apply this to ethnicity pay gap reporting. At the SRA, we have begun publishing our ethnicity pay gap along with our gender pay gap.
The Law Society have published a detailed page exploring ethnicity pay gap reporting, and how to start reporting at your organisation.
Practical examples
Be open and transparent about your race equality work
KPMG UK have published:
- an overview of their commitments to race equality
- a snapshot of their current staff by ethnicity
- highlights from their ethnicity action plan and case studies
- highlights in our recent webinar in 'Improving retention and progression in law firms'.
This gives prospective candidates a good idea of their approach to race equality and a flavour of what working for them may feel like.
It is important with any initiative you are considering to bring in the lived experience of your Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff before implementation.
You may be in a position where you are able to create an advisory board consisting of Black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals with lived experience in law. By doing this you will gain insight from individuals with a diverse range of experience and expertise adding an additional layer of representation to your governance structure.
If you cannot create an advisory board, consider formal consultation with staff, customers, or community groups on changes/challenges you may feel are relevant to race equality in your workplace.
Another way to bring in lived experience is through reverse mentoring. Reverse mentoring involves senior leaders being mentored by junior staff who have different life experiences and/or mindsets. The aim is that the senior leader develops their understanding of the mentor's lived experiences. They then use this to be more inclusive in their work and break down barriers as an ally.
Reverse mentoring is widely recognised to be mutually beneficial. The senior mentee gains insight into the experience of the mentor, but also the mentor often learns through the seniority and guidance of the mentee.
Practical examples
Use advisory boards to make progress on race equality
Weil, Gotshal & Manges (London) LLP has two Black Attorney Advisory Boards that work with the global executive partner. One board is comprised of Black partners, and the other of Black counsel and associates, from across Weil's offices with two London office members on each board. These boards advise on a range of issues of importance to the firm, including but not limited to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) related topics.
The Black Advisory Boards provide associates, counsel and partners with mentoring from senior leadership and the opportunity to meet with the firm's management. This allows open and honest conversations about ways to improve and enhance the experiences of diverse lawyers and business professionals at the firm.
Many ideas conceived and developed at the advisory boards have been adopted. For example, the next level career development programme BLAST (Black Lawyers Achieving Success Together) for mid-to-senior level Associates in London, as well as the US. Also Firm Citizenship Hours, which places time spent on DEI on an equal footing with client billable and pro bono time.
Reverse-mentoring programme
Macfarlanes has delivered an annual reverse mentoring programme since 2020. Senior leaders (mentees) are paired with more junior mentors, who share their lived experiences and perspectives. The initial focus was on race and ethnicity, and has since expanded beyond race and ethnicity to align with all the D&I networks, to support intersectional perspectives.
Recruitment targets can be a way to ensure everybody at your firm is proactive in recruiting from a diverse pool of people. They can set tangible goals, with a timeframe that makes sure these goals are continuously prioritised. For example, at the SRA we developed a workforce senior ethnicity inclusion action plan. It includes, among other actions, doubling the number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff within our senior team by the end of 2026.
Targets do not always have to be around getting a certain percentage of people from a given group into the firm, or into leadership positions. You could monitor other targets by staff engagement surveys. For example, the percentage of your staff that see themselves staying at your firm for the foreseeable future, or who would rate your workplace culture as positive. You can then analyse the data by diversity categories to make sure there are no particular groups who feel less positively about your workplace.
One of the most important parts of diversity monitoring is evaluating the success of initiatives, in order to take lessons forward for next time. Some initiatives may be undertaken with the best of intentions, but may not be successful or appropriate for your firm. Once you have established the diversity of your workforce and benchmarked yourself, you will be in a stronger position to set relevant and attainable targets of where you want to be. You can then use these to monitor your progress towards over time.
Watch these short videos on how to set diversity targets, and the importance of monitoring them to affect change.
Ranjit Sond, President of the Society of Asian Lawyers
Look carefully at your retention rates. Research shows that Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff are more likely to leave to join smaller firms or in-house legal departments. This is known as the 'ethnicity stay gap'. Research from RARE recruitment in 'Closing the ethnicity stay gap' shows that the average Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyer's tenure at a firm is 18 months shorter than that of a comparable White lawyer.
You can watch this short video for more detail about the 'ethnicity stay gap'.
Raphael Mokades, Managing Director of RARE Recruitment
If you are seeing a similar 'ethnicity stay gap' within your firm, it could suggest that while your recruitment practices are inclusive, this is not reflected in your workplace culture.
Staff networks can be a good place to start when considering how to improve and/or measure your efforts to improve culture and inclusion in the workplace. Networks provide a safe space where members can share challenges, support each other, and speak as a group where there is shared experience. They are usually managed and coordinated by staff members themselves, with minimal input from traditional governance structures. This enables the network to speak independently, and constructively offer feedback on areas for improvement.
The video below is part of a series of videos we did around race. The first four minutes that will autoplay include a discussion about the benefits and initiatives that can be undertaken by staff networks in partnership with recruitment. Alternatively you can watch the entire video.
SRA Chair Anna Bradley, Paulette Mastin, Chair of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN), John Oladeji, Co-founder of Black Men in Law (BML) and Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society (at the time of the webinar).
Please note: we recorded this video in 2020, where using the acronym 'BAME' for 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' was best practice. We would not use this acronym today, but this is a good example of how fast language, particularly around diversity, can evolve. We should always strive to use current best practice and respect the importance of using terminology correctly. This often naturally follows putting into place a genuinely inclusive workplace culture, where people feel empowered to speak up to share views on inclusive language and other practices.
It is important to consider how you listen to your networks and implement their feedback, as well as ensure senior leaders invest time in engaging with the networks. Senior buy-in will ensure that they are given space to contribute within your governance structure. Without this, having a network can become a 'tick box exercise' and not result in meaningful change.
Watch the short videos below on the role of leadership in achieving race equality. They cover top tips for managers including the importance of building accountability into all practices in a firm.
Paulette Mastin, Former Chair of the Black Solicitors Network
Small firms may not always be able to run internal staff networks that provide targeted opportunities for career development. However, firms can encourage staff to get involved in wider profession networks, such as the ones listed on our Your Health, Your Career page.
Watch this short video on how profession networks can provide additional opportunities.
Tamina Greaves, Co-Chair of Birmingham Black Lawyers
Practical examples
Using staff networks to build workplace community
All of White and Case's Affinity Networks are inclusive and open to everyone at the firm (lawyers and business services colleagues), including allies. Members can identify personal and professional development opportunities, attend events, access client networking opportunities, and gain a platform to raise concerns or challenges, and to provide feedback.
A positive workplace culture needs to be supported by a good work / life balance. If employees are unable to continue in their role because it impacts too much on personal life commitments, this could impact retention. Having a good work/ life balance can increase productivity in the long-term as staff are less likely to experience burnout, have better mental health and therefore produce better quality work.
Our workplace culture thematic review found that while three quarters of respondents reported working in a broadly positive environment, there were still concerns and issues about pressures on solicitors. Some respondents highlighted that there was still work to be done to improve race equality, particularly at senior levels.
It is crucial to create a culture where staff feel safe to speak out about poor behaviour and unfair treatment at work without fear of stigma or reprisal.
Watch this short video on where to start to change workplace culture in a way that builds accountability.
Raphael Mokades, Managing Director of RARE Recruitment
Previous research, including LawCare and the Junior Lawyers Division of the Law Society, had highlighted high levels of stress, and even bullying and discrimination in the sector.
We have known for some years that Black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors are overrepresented in reports made to us, and in the reports we take forward for investigation. We commissioned research that showed there was no one singular cause for this overrepresentation. Overrepresentation was caused by a combination of factors along with ethnicity, including the size of the firm where the solicitor worked, the firm’s practice area and the source of the report.
Our workplace environment guidance sets out the main standards that apply to solicitors and law firms and the responsibilities for their culture and the systems in place within them.
Being culturally competent means being able to communicate and work effectively with others, regardless of difference. Cultural competence enables you and your colleagues to be aware of your own values and how these may differ to someone else's but still work respectfully and considerately together.
The Law Society published an article which describes cultural competence and how it can be beneficial to the workplace.
Our report looking at potential causes of differential outcomes by ethnicity in legal professional assessments identified microaggressions as a barrier to fitting in and finding support in the workplace.
One example of a microaggression is incorrect name pronunciation. In a survey conducted by Race Equality Matters, 73% of respondents from more than 100 organisations said they had their names mispronounced.
Names are a crucial part of who we are and may have specific cultural meaning or particular relevance to someone's identity. It is often the case that mispronunciation of names disproportionately impacts those from a Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds. Getting someone's name wrong can be considered a microaggression and disrespectful if not corrected.
There are steps you can take to ensure you give consideration and respect to others. As part of this, Race Equality Matters have created a name pronunciation tool to help if you are unsure on a pronunciation.
The video below is part of a series of videos we did around race. The first two minutes that will autoplay include a discussion on microaggressions as part of a wider conversation on the question of class and race in the legal profession. Alternatively you can watch the entire video.
SRA Chair Anna Bradley, Raphael Mokades, Director and founder of Rare Recruitment and Chris White, founder of Aspiring Solicitors.
Please note: we recorded this clip in 2020, where using the acronym 'BAME' for 'Black, Asian and minority ethnic' was best practice. We would not use this acronym today, but this is a good example of how fast language, particularly around diversity, can evolve.
Cultural competence training may be useful alongside a wider programme to develop a culture in your firm which recognises and celebrates difference.
Having active role models and allies in place can be helpful. It usually works best if the role model or ally is a senior manager or partner of the firm and is visible about their commitment to race equality. Role models or allies might wish to host or chair a race specific workshop or seminar or publish an article as part of a regular internal communications bulletin.
The video below is part of a series of videos we did around race. The first two minutes that will autoplay include a discussion about how to make yourself approachable as a senior leader and ally. Alternatively you can watch the entire video.
SRA Chair Anna Bradley, Michael Davison, Deputy Chief Executive at the London office of Hogan Lovells, Helen Randall, Partner at Trowers & Hamlins and head of the firm's Diversity and Initiative programme (at the time of the webinar) and Hamid Yunis, Managing Partner of the London office of McDermott Will and Emery UK LLP
Mentoring allows staff to benefit from the experience of senior managers, who often act as role models. This can be a useful tool to encourage and develop individuals who are starting out in their career, with benefits for your firm as well.
Watch this short video on top tips for mentees to get the most out of a mentoring programme.
Chris White, Founder of Aspiring Solicitors
You can also watch this clip on what makes a good mentor.
Ohenewaa Adu-Akyeampong, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the British Ghanian Lawyers Union
Practical examples
Mentoring programme
RWK Goodman's Thrive Mentoring Programme pairs legal professionals with students to help develop the next generation of Black lawyers. The programme partners participants with students from traditionally under-represented groups, so that every student and graduate can fulfil their potential, regardless of background. Mentors are supportive and experienced lawyers who offer the student one-to-one impartial guidance, encouraging them to grow, develop and improve their confidence. The aim is to prepare the mentees for a future career in law.
The firm have seen numerous benefits for the lawyers themselves, including elements of reverse-mentoring. One partner described the experience as 'a useful reminder of how privileged we are to do what we do and how rewarding it can be to help others enter the same career path'.
The Law Society provides a comprehensive toolkit for organisations on race inclusivity.