DIVERSITY MATTERS - NEW LAW SOCIETY PRESIDENT APPOINTED IN ANOTHER SERIES OF FIRSTS

Scott Smith Senior Associate, Howes Percival LLP

Wednesday 12 October felt like a historic day for equality, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession as Lubna Shuja become the 178th president of the Law Society. Despite the long line of presidents before her, Lubna was the first ASIAN, first MUSLIM and only the 7th female president in the Law Society’s illustrious history. It is also the first time that there has been consecutive female presidents, following the end of I. Stephanie Boyce’s tenure (herself the first BLACK and sixth female president in almost 200 years).

Although the appointment of Lubna and her predecessor made history and visible progress towards equality, diversity and inclusion in the legal sector, both women recognise that there is much work still to be done.

DRIVING FOR CHANGE

In Lubna’s address to the Law Society’s annual general meeting, she outlined the five main aims of her presidency, which included taking action to break down barriers that people face across society when trying to access the profession. She has been committed to promoting diversity within the profession and readers may remember her attendance at our jointly held roundtable discussion, social mobility in the profession, earlier in the year. Lubna herself was brought up in a working class household and spoke passionately at our roundtable about the importance of opening up routes into the profession for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

These words follow a similar message from I. Stephanie Boyce, who was also committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion. She regularly spoke of the barriers she had to overcome to get into the law and has recalled in interview being told “you don’t look like a solicitor, you don’t sound like a solicitor” time and time again as she progressed in her career. Like Lubna, she saw equity, diversity and inclusion as a key focus for her presidency and was involved in the government backed taskforce aimed at boosting socio-economic diversity at senior levels in UK professional services. In an interview with the Law Society reflecting on her time as President, I. Stephanie highlighted the platform the role had given her to advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion and described her hopes that she can continue this work after her presidency.

ROLE MODELS FOR THE PROFESSION

A focus on these issues at the very top of the Law Society, and making public commitments to advocacy and improvement are strong indicators of progress; however, the appointment of both women in and of itself is also having impact.

The importance and value of strong role models in the profession cannot be understated. The appointment of women like Lubna and I. Stephanie to high profile roles such as Law Society President has real impact on junior lawyers of MUSLIM faith, BLACK or ASIAN heritage and from working class backgrounds. It sends a powerful message to all those looking on that it is possible to make it to the top of your profession, irrespective of your socioeconomic background, faith or ethnicity.

BRINGING THE PROGRESS TO CAMBRIDGESHIRE

Here at Cambridgeshire Law Society, we are proud of the work carried out to date but share the Law Society President’s ambitions to do more. We hope to build on the momentum achieved at The Law Society, and are looking forward to working with Lubna and her team over the coming year to deliver more events, roundtables and discussions on these topics.

We also hope to launch a Cambridgeshire Law Society Diversity Network in 2023, so look out for an invite to our welcome event in the coming months. The new network will aim to connect our female, LGBTQ+, ethnic minority and disabled members and their allies, amplify visibility within the region and provide a safe space for support between like-minded members. Our hope is that junior members will also find local role models and mentors to build on the visibility at the top of the Law Society and see that the profession can be for people like them.

If you would like to get involved with our Diversity Matters initiative or our new network or if you have a story or opinion to share about your experience of EDI within the Cambridgeshire legal community please get in touch with Scott Smith our EDI officer (scott.smith@howespercival. com) or Penelope Harrington our administrator (admin@ cambslaw.com)!

CYPG UPDATE

Melissa Barker PR Manager, Cambridgeshire Young Professionals Division

It has been wonderful to see so many professional peers at our events in person this year after so long spent goggle-eyed on screens.

We have put together a schedule for events we are looking to host next year, which includes:

January: Curry Evening

February: Comedy Night

March: Cocktail Making

April: Clip 'n' Climb

May: BBQ

June: Picnic & Games

July: Crazy Golf

August: Punting

September: Ball

October: Food Tasting

November: Wine Tasting

December: Christmas Party!!!

We will send out dates in the New Year once we have agreed these so you can provisionally put them in your diaries. We look forward to seeing you in 2023.

Our November Wine Tasting event sold out very early on and a merry evening was had by all. It has generally been one of our more popular events.

In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas which hopefully brings you a well-earned break and Happy New Year!

CJLD UPDATE

Alexandra Illingworth, Publicity Representative

The Cambridgeshire Junior Lawyers Division rounded off the year with a charity Christmas dinner in aid of the Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre. Held at Stolen and Liquor Loft, the dinner was a big success with plenty of holiday cheer, a 3 course meal and lots of screaming at Alexa for festive tunes…

Thank you very much to everyone who has attended our events this year; it has been great to see some more (familiar and new!) faces in person after Covid. We hope that you have enjoyed our events, from escape rooms to bowling, punting, pizza in the park and the summer ball with CYPG. Thank you also to our amazing sponsor, Errington Legal, whose support is much appreciated.

We are excited to be announcing a new CJLD committee in 2023; you can stay tuned for an announcement of the new committee on our website at www.cambsjld.org/