Good morning. I'm delighted to be here today.
Before I begin in earnest, I'd like to take this opportunity to announce the appointment of Lord Justice Moore-Bick as the new Chair of the Legal Services Consultative Panel. Unfortunately, Lord Justice Moore-Bick can't be here today but I offer him my warm congratulations, and I look forward to working with him in the coming years.
I'd also like to express my thanks to Alan Street, who has been serving in the role of Chair since April.
Alan, I and the Department are very grateful to you for the work you've done in leading the Panel for the last seven months. I want to put on record our appreciation and thanks.
Almost everyone will use legal services at some point in their lives. For this reason, it is essential that the legal profession should be, and should be seen to be, representative of the people it serves.
Last year, this conference looked at the barriers to entry into the profession, the means to break down these barriers and ways to encourage greater diversity in the professions.
Today, I want to speak about the steps we - the Government - have taken since the conference last year towards a legal profession that reaches out to talent in all walks of life. I'll also chart out some of the steps we intend to take in the near future.
But before I do so, I would just like to be clear on one point. It's a point that's been made before but it is one well worth repeating. We are not suggesting that diversity should ever be a substitute for merit.
People entering into, and progressing through, the profession should always do so on merit. What we do insist on, however, is that merit doesn't just come from certain quarters of society.
Merit comes from across society as a whole.
Since the last conference, there has been good news from within the legal services sector.
The Law Society has shown an increase in the proportion of practising women and minority ethnic solicitors.
And the proportion of minority ethnic trainees has also gone up.
But it's not all good news:
The proportion of women trainees decreased slightly last year.
The number of women and minority ethnic people in pupillage has gone down.
And the number of women called to the Bar has gone down.
The overall proportion of practising women and minority ethnic barristers has remained static.
So, it's a very mixed and patchy picture.
What we all want to see - it goes without saying - is an increase in diversity and equal opportunities across the whole of the legal profession.
And that is what the Panel had in mind in May this year when it issued its advice to Lord Falconer, the Secretary of State. The advice set out the steps that the Panel believed the Government, the profession, and educational establishments should take to tackle the issue of increasing diversity in the legal profession. This advice was published on the DCA website, and I hope you have had the chance to look at the panel's recommendations.
We certainly have given these recommendations careful consideration.
I am pleased to say that we have broadly accepted all seventeen of the recommendations made by the Panel. And today I am pleased to be publishing our Report, which sets out how we will be taking forward each of the recommendations. A copy is in your packs.
Where a way forward on a recommendation isn't entirely clear, the Report sets out the ways in which the Department will be working with you - the practitioners, academics, and the professional bodies - to achieve the change that is needed.
It also sets out what the Government will be doing in the coming months. But I want to make a start now. That is why I have written, today, to the top 100 law firms and the top 30 chambers to ask each and every one of them to monitor and publish their data on diversity.
As I said earlier, it is not only important that the profession recruits from the widest possible range of talent, but it is also important that it is seen to be doing so.
Those of you who attended last years' conference will be aware that clients are increasingly purchasing legal services from firms and chambers that represent and reflect their own customers. That is not just happening in the UK, it is happening everywhere.
My letter also asks firms and chambers to publish details of their training. While aiming for a diverse workforce is important in attracting talent, we also need to focus on retaining talent once people are through the door.
I don't intend this measure to be seen as regulatory. I don't want to add burden to business by introducing regulations to a sector that is already about to undergo regulatory reform.
This is why I hope that the firms and chambers I have written to today will undertake this monitoring and publication of diversity data on a voluntary basis, because quite frankly, apart from being good practice, it makes good business sense.
Measures for increasing diversity should be seen by all as a means of discovering untapped talent. We want to reach people who have ruled out a career for themselves in the legal professions because they don't think they have the right background.
Recent reports in the press have highlighted the fact that more than a quarter of calls to the Trainee Solicitor Group's helpline deal with perceived bullying, harassment and exploitation. Clearly these aren't the sort of statistics that will encourage people to aspire to a career in the legal profession.
The Trainee Solicitors Group helpline shows that 14% of calls were from people seeking advice on finding a training contract. 5% were concerned that firms were not providing enough training. I accept, of course, that the number of training courses available is market-driven. But by being absolutely transparent about the training that's on offer, firms can allay some of the understandable fears that students have about post-degree training.
Of course, my letter today is just a first step. The Report sets out a whole range of work we will be taking forward to improve diversity.
We've responded to the Panel's recommendation that there be more research conducted into why certain groups face difficulty gaining entry to the legal professions. Already, the professional bodies collect a huge amount of data that may shed some light in addressing that problem.
I have asked officials to continue to work with professional bodies on making best use of this data. We will be looking for trends as to why certain people are not entering the legal professions, or, for that matter, not progressing as expected. This data will act as the basis for making future improvements.
In most of what I have said today, the onus for future development may appear to fall upon those within legal professions and the professional bodies themselves. However, you will see that the Report also agrees with the Panel that those teaching law should not allow students to have false expectations of the workplace.
The legal professions demand excellence. Places for pupillage or training contracts are highly competitive. It is vital that those teaching law manage their students' expectations, and that students acquire the skills and attributes that are sought after by employers, including public and private organisations beyond the legal sector that recruit lawyers.
The Department for Education and Skills will of course play a key role on this. But there are many of you here today from academic institutions, and I'd like to encourage you to take this opportunity to provide feedback and ideas. Your thoughts are very important to us and will help inform future work.
Alongside managing student expectations, the Report is clear that we should also highlight the value that alternative routes into the profession bring to those who may not be able to study law by the more traditional route. By that, I mean university followed by a vocational qualification such as the Legal Practice Course and the Bar Vocational Course.
The Institute of Legal Executives already provides an alternative route which allows people to study whilst working in a legal environment. This route is a valuable part of the legal sector, and promotes competition. But most importantly it offers opportunities to those who might otherwise miss out. It therefore plays and important role when looking at ways to improve the diversity of the legal sector.
In respect of the traditional route, we want to build on the work that is already taking place and see the lawyers of tomorrow coming from a diverse range of universities. Firms and chambers should look to recruit from the widest range of universities possible. The Panel highlighted this as a key issue and we agree. Equality of opportunity irrespective of what university candidates have attended demonstrates a real and lasting commitment to diversity.
Today I have talked a lot about firms and chambers and I have said a bit about ILEX. But I should be clear that the actions in the report are equally applicable to all branches of the legal profession.
The very spirit of this conference is that we all come together to work towards a long-term solution to the difficulties faced by many trying to develop a career in law.
Only by all working together will we make a difference. I'm particularly pleased, therefore, to be able to report that the Law Society, the Bar Council, ILEX, and the Council of Licensed Conveyancers have agreed to set-up a working party with the DCA in order to consider some of the issues in the Report and to look for further actions to be taken forward.
Some of these professional bodies are already closely involved in the Department's work on increasing diversity in the judiciary.
Increasing diversity in the wider legal profession complements this work because by making the legal profession as a whole more diverse, we will increase the diversity of the pool of people eligible for judicial appointment. Just as we are committed to increasing the diversity of the legal profession, we are also committed to encouraging diversity among our judges. This must surely be good news for both the justice system itself and the faith put in it by the public.
So on that note, I'd like to hand over to you. Today's conference provides an excellent opportunity for you all to share examples of best practice and to feed into the debate on how we can ensure that legal education and training, be it at university or in the workplace, is open to the most able, regardless of their background.
This afternoon, you will be involved in a range of discussions. The outcome of those will be taken back to the Department, and will feed into our ongoing work to make legal education and training as inclusive as possible. What you say today really will help shape policy in this area.
I want to stress again that the onus of responsibility in making the legal profession a more inclusive and diverse place rests with all of us.
Today, I have set out the Government's proposals on how we intend to go forward. But change won't happen unless we all work together to make these proposals a reality. We need to work in partnership to ensure a diverse and prosperous future for the legal professions.
In that spirit, I hope you enjoy the day ahead and I look forward to seeing the outcomes of today's discussions.
Thank you.