Social mobility

Social mobility: A year in review

Throughout the past year, the Law Society of England and Wales has led a campaign to improve social mobility in the solicitor profession, in order to bring new voices from different backgrounds into the profession.

The immediate past president of the Law Society, I. Stephanie Boyce said “social mobility and diversity” are key elements in her presidential plan and that it is her “mission to remove barriers” for people from “lower socio-economic backgrounds” to join the legal profession. She stated:

“As I enter my final week as president, I thought it best to reflect on what we’ve achieved on improving social mobility during my term, and how the work we achieved this year has laid the groundwork for years to come.

Throughout my presidency I’ve met with hundreds of young people who have told me their stories. What inspired them to pursue a career in the profession, the hardships they’ve faced and their determination to use their experience to help our communities with all manner of legal issues.”

Boyce spoke of her own struggles breaking into the profession and the achievements she has made in helping others in this area. She said:

“Social mobility is a deeply personal issue to me. I was brought up in a single-parent household on a council estate and I found I didn’t have the connections that others may have had to get their foot in the door when starting out.

I kept persevering and eventually qualified as a solicitor in 2002, having found a training contract at a local firm in Buckinghamshire.

That’s why I am so proud of the work the Law Society has done over the past year on social mobility.”

She stated the Law Society have held two webinars to “support members drive social mobility” and launched a brand-new social mobility web hub which provides expert resources to help further “promote socio-economic diversity”.

Boyce also highlighted the society have appointed 13 new social mobility ambassadors in 2021 and “awarded 15 scholarships to aspiring solicitors” who face obstacles in joining the profession as part of their “Diversity Access Scheme”.

In addition to this, Boyce announced the findings as part of industry-wide consultation on how the government, regulators, and sector bodies can incentivise employers to improve social mobility. She stated:

“As part of this consultation, we held 10 regional roundtables across England and Wales to gather input from the legal profession, including with our social mobility ambassadors, the largest law firms and in-house solicitors.

We spoke to over 170 lawyers, from trainee solicitors to managing partners and diversity and inclusion professionals from 113 organisations.

The findings from these roundtables, alongside other roundtables held by other representative bodies across financial and professional services, are currently being considered by the Taskforce, which is due to publish its final report with recommendations in November.”

Judicial diversity

The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) Diversity of the Judiciary 2022 found there is still work to be done to improve the ethnic and professional diversity of the judiciary.

Boyce stated her concern about the “continuous significant disparity in outcomes” between “solicitor candidates compared with barristers”. She has called for a “speedier progress” in improving judicial diversity”. She point to the latest statistics which shows a “reduction in proportion of judges from a solicitor background”. Boyce added:

“As a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum, we will seek to work alongside other organisations to further expand on its commitment on judicial diversity.

This year the Forum agreed on a set of new questions which will record the socio-economic background of judicial office holders and lawyers from 2025 to align with best practice from the Social Mobility Commission.

As I near the end of my term, I am sure that incoming president Lubna Shuja and staff at the Law Society will continue to fight for greater social mobility in the legal profession and ensure there is greater socio-economic diversity at all levels.”

https://todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk/email-sign-up/

Want to have your say? Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read more stories

Join nearly 3,000 other family practitioners - Check back daily for all the latest news, views, insights and best practice and sign up to our e-newsletter to receive our weekly round up every Thursday morning. 

You’ll receive the latest updates, analysis, and best practice straight to your inbox.

Features