Supporting BME solicitors

Black History Month event

BMEs in the Law - Creating and Doing Business in the UK and Worldwide is the theme of BLD's exciting and topical Black History Month Event on 6 October 2011 hosted by the Law Society.

Trevor Faure, the Global General Counsel and partner of Ernst & Young, is the keynote speaker. The panellists include Imran Khan, best known as representing the Stephen Lawrence family and the panel session is chaired by Shaun Wallace, the barrister who made history as the first black winner of Mastermind and is the 'Dark Destroyer' on ITV's The Chase.
Read more

The Law Society has a dedicated member of staff responsible for developing and providing products and services relevant to black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors.

We are currently moving forward with a range of new initiatives for 2011 including:

  • BME targeted workshops focusing on practice management
  • BME focused seminars looking at increasing the number of BME solicitors recommended for judicial appointment
  • BME equal pay campaign / report
  • Lexcel equality products and services
  • Diversity toolkit for firms
  • 2011 Minority Lawyers Conference
  • New, improved Diversity Access Scheme
  • Black History Month events
  • Support to BME solicitors experiecing professional indemnity insurance renewal difficulties
  • BME Council member newsletter

Judges - public appointments

The Lord Chancellor has announced that the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) will remain in place as the independent body. The recruitment of a new chair of the JAC has taken place and Christopher Stephens has now replaced Baroness Usha Prasher.

BME Forum

In 2008 the Law Society launched a BME Forum to provide a collective voice for BME representative groups within the legal profession. Our aim is to enable individual groups to work, campaign and support their members together.

The Forum will:

  • shape products and services relevant to BME firms
  • identify and address issues of concern
  • comment on policy, including contributing to Law Society policy responses
  • work on joint projects, often in partnership with the Law Society.

Special interest groups

We support a number of independent groups and associations that represent the interests of specific sectors of the profession, including the Black Solicitors Network.
See groups and assosciations

Events

We host events with BME organisations, including the successful biennial Minority Lawyers Conference and Black History Month.

See our events calendar

Diversity Access Scheme

The Diversity Access Scheme helps exceptionally talented, committed people overcome social, economic or personal barriers to entering the solicitors' profession. It funds places on the Graduate Diploma of Law (GDL) and LPC at a number of teaching institutions and offers mentoring support.

Scholarships

A small number of scholarships are awarded through the Law Society bursary scheme . They are awarded to students who have secured places on the Common Professional Examination, the GDL or the LPC and who, due to financial difficulties, would be unable to further their legal studies.

Lobbying for greater diversity in judicial appointments

We continue to work with the Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Appointments Commission to address the lack of diversity in the judiciary. Read more about this work

Research

We commission research on equality and diversity matters such as:

  • The impact of regulatory decisions of the Investigations and Enforcement Unit on black and minority ethnic solicitors
  • Earnings and work of private practice solicitors

Read the BME reports on the website

Black Lawyers Directory

The Black Lawyers Directory (BLD) was set up in 2006 with the objective of trying to tackle some of the challenges faced by black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) lawyers and law students in accessing and progressing in the legal profession.

The BLD runs a number of initiatives through its community - the national Legal Gateway scheme aimed at making a difference and raising the aspirations of BAME students who have aspirations towards a career in law. The scheme includes the Today's Children, Tomorrow's Lawyers (TCTL) programme, aimed at 14-to-17-year-olds.

The programme provides youngsters with an insight into the legal profession, including open day visits to a major bank, a prestigious law school and top law firms, as well as work experience, career workshops and an inter-school debating competition. The other major programme within the Legal Gateway Scheme is the Legal Launch Pad (LLP) programme, aimed at those aged 18 and over who are largely in their second year at university.

Central to the work of BLD is to showcase the achievements of BAMEs in the legal profession - from partners at the top UK 100 law firms, general counsel and professors of law, to judges and Queen's Counsel (QCs), through the annual ground-breaking Black Letter Law publication.