The Leeds Law Society Diversity and Inclusion Conference – Gender

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

The Leeds Law Society Diversity and Inclusion Conference – Gender

The Leeds Law Society is one of the oldest and largest law societies in the UK and I am proud to be a Director who sits on the Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee leading on gender.

The LLS has made significant progress towards diversity and inclusion in recent years and last year for the first time hosted a virtual conference focussing on exactly that, in conjunction with the Law Society of England and Wales. The conference was a great success and our law society decided to maintain focus on these important issues and to continue to raise awareness by organising an even bigger conference this year. This event took place virtually from 14 to 30 September 2021 with the theme of “promoting a modern, diverse and inclusive profession”.

As before, each event focussed on a particular area with the gender event taking place on 21 September 2021. I was delighted to chair this conference where we had talks from Lady Hale and Coral Hill followed by a panel discussion with Catherine Woodward, the Leeds Law Society President, Richard Blann, Head of Group Litigation & Conduct Investigations Legal from Lloyds Banking Group and Amandeep Khasriya, Senior Associate from Moore Barlow. The aim was clear – we wanted to continue to raise awareness of the issues we face and to hear how collectively we could overcome them.

Lady Hale

Lady Hale’s talk was fascinating. I think we all recall what seemed to be the judiciary’s approach to gender equality in the 1990’s, often referred to as the “trickle up theory” i.e. if the number of females joining the profession at the bottom increases, this will trickle up to the top without having to do anything more about it. The Lord Chief Justice in 1992 believed this theory would ensure the natural progression of gender equality in the following years. Of course, this didn’t happen.

Senior women seeking appointments to the judiciary faced many challenges. In Lady Hale’s view, these were largely due to traditional assumptions, methods of recruitment (previously a tap on the shoulder) and attrition. Lady Hale has been keen to address these issues with colleagues who, at times, have been somewhat dismissive, particularly those who referred to these efforts as “Brenda’s agenda”.

Lady Hale believes that there is still much to do. First and foremost, we need to think inclusively. For example, how many male institutions expect women to adapt to their ways rather than the other way round? We need work environments where women can speak up and be listened to. And we need more female role models, mentors and sponsors so that women feel comfortable in the upper echelons.

In Lady Hale’s view, the judiciary needs to seek candidates in different talent pools such as central and local government, finance and industry. We need to look at how we define and assess merit to embrace our differences. There also needs to be a cultural change in judicial leadership where diversity is seen as fundamental to qualify for the judiciary rather than being tangential to it.

Coral Hill

Our next speaker was Coral Hill, who shared her reflections on her legal career as well as her involvement in the 2019 roundtables undertaken by Christina Blacklaws, past President of the Law Society of England and Wales. The results of the roundtable discussions, we were told, were startling and uncovered unbelievable prejudice. Whilst views were aired privately there was a clear desire to do something publicly – to “move the dial” and to commit to action plans.

Unsurprisingly, the challenges that women still face today are cultural norms, essentially unconscious bias. These norms were described as “powerful”. Coral invited us to try the Harvard University unconscious bias test and promised we would all be surprised by the results. Seeing where we are now is clearly very important before we can identify the changes needed.

One area of real challenge remains the apparent dislike of women regarded as being “overconfident” or “pushy”, which is not considered to be a desirable trait. Women are also perceived as having less authority than men but are belittled when they use their authority. We see this in all walks of life. Cultural norms need to be examined and challenged as they have a real effect on women’s advancement.

Addressing inequality is “mission critical” for successful businesses as equality makes strong and resilient teams and opens businesses up to the outside world. The wider the base and the more diverse the staff, the greater the appeal of the business to a larger group of clients and contacts which directly impacts the bottom line.

In the panel session reference was made to collecting data both in the bar and within the solicitors’ professions. The results need to be analysed and discussed with all staff. What is not working and why? What can be done differently?

There is a clear need for more role models and for them to be more visible; and for increased awareness of the challenges women face. We need to think about intersectionality and how to address the different barriers.

There is clearly still much to do to achieve parity from a gender perspective. The latest data shows that only 33% of women in the profession are in leadership roles. The structural workplace barriers and societal norms in firms need to be tackled. A good starting point is the Law Society Women in Law Pledge, which was created to promote gender equality in the legal profession. But many firms have still not signed up to this pledge.

As a group we also need to challenge inappropriate comments or jokes. Lady Hale shared with us how a young law student would challenge such remarks with a simple request – “Would you mind saying that again?” It worked a treat!

Top Tips

We finished the session with the panel’s top tips:

■ Speak up

■ Take time to explain issues to men as early as possible in your careers

■ Empower people and create a safe space for conversations

■ Cultural change is important to the bottom line and there is a business reason to buy into the D and I agenda

■ Consider the décor of your building and make it modern and relatable.

I conclude with the apt words of our gender lead and partner at Weightmans, Bavita Rai, whose mantra is “what gets measured gets done!”. ■

Helen Brown

Helen Brown

Partner and National Head of Local Government at Weightmans