Diversity in the Legal Profession: Positive Action and the Limits of the Law

This book investigates measures to increase diversity in the legal profession of England and Wales and the impact on these measures of equality law, specifically in the way it enables organisations lawfully to take positive or affirmative action.

The book combines a qualitative interview study of lawyers, legal regulators, recruitment consultants and other civil society actors, with analysis of developments in the legal profession, in equality law and in understanding of the role of law in society.

The evidence paints a puzzling picture of the law on positive action being experienced as limiting what employers may do to advance equality, and yet, of significant positive action being taken anyway, at least in this section of the legal profession.

The glimpse into legal practice provided by qualitative interviews with a range of lawyers, regulators and civil society actors revealed complex attitudes, persistent barriers to fundamental change, and, in hindsight, that liberalizing positive action laws was never likely to make much difference.

This case study therefore cautions against overestimating equality law's power to drive change while suggesting strategies for enhancing its effectiveness.

At the broadest level, the book argues for frank acknowledgment of law's limitations, a stronger focus on understanding how legal mechanisms function in practice before deploying them, and much more attention to the potential for advancing equality and addressing broader societal challenges with more imaginative, innovative implementation of existing laws and the use of non-legislative initiatives.