According to the BSB’s Diversity at the Bar report, as of December 2021 women make up 38% of the Bar, with the number of women QCs increasing year on year, from 16.8% to 17.9%. At pupillage level, 56.6% of pupils are women and 43.4% are men. Another gendered issue is unequal work allocation. The BSB has produced tools to assist chambers in the monitoring of work allocation as part of its equality and diversity rules handbook. Disability The number of people working in law firms who reported a disability is only 5% – this figure remains the same when looking solely at lawyers in law firms, which, according to the SRA, is still significantly lower than the UK workforce. Just 4% of partners said they have a disability. In firms with 10 to 50 partners, 6% of lawyers reported a disability, while firms with 50+ partners have a lower proportion of disabled lawyers at 4%. Improving inclusivity and accessibility for disabled lawyers is crucial, and the past few years have proven that agile working practices could be a stepping stone to a more accessible profession. According to the Legally Disabled? survey of 100 disabled lawyers conducted in 2020, 70% of those surveyed said they would prefer to work remotely in the long term due to the many health and wellbeing benefits it offers. However, respondents also warned that “one size does not fit all” and “it should not be assumed that all disabled employees would prefer to work from home”. Meanwhile, at the Bar, the BSB reported a 3.4% increase from 2020 to 2021 of pupils who have a disability. Including respondents who didn’t provide information, the BSB found that 4% of the Bar, 4.3% of pupils, 4.2% of non- QC barristers and 2% of QCs had reported a disability as of December 2021. These figures
are from an ethnic minority background. Meanwhile, at the Bar just over 14% of practising barristers and only 9.6% of Queen’s Counsel (QC) are from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the Bar Standards Board (BSB), with ethnic minority candidates making up just 19.8% of pupils. Research by the BSB relating to students enrolled on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) (the old vocational stage of training for the Bar) from 2011/12 to 2019/20, shows that 77% of white candidates with a first-class degree and an ‘outstanding’ BPTC grade secured pupillage, compared with 65% of candidates from an ethnic minority background with the same grades. In addition, a Bar Council report published in 2021 highlights that on average Black women barristers earn around £19,000 less per annum than their White male counterparts, and Black male barrister salaries are more than £15,000 less than the average White junior barrister. Despite petitions calling for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting, the UK’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is yet to make this a legal requirement. Gender Women make up just over half of practising solicitors, but only 35% of partners in private practice. According to the Law Society’s analysis of 41 law firms’ gender pay gap reporting from 2017 and 2020, on average women in the largest law firms earn one-fifth less than men. The Law Society’s analysis demonstrates that of the law firms reporting for 2017 and 2020, 28 saw a decrease in mean gender pay gap (based on hourly pay), while 12 experienced an increase and one firm experienced no change. In addition, while a similar number of men and women received bonuses, men received bonuses that were of higher value, with the average gap between bonus value being 39.4% in 2020.
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