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PROPOSAL TO AWARD RECOGNISED GROUP STATUS TO BLACK SOLICITORS' NETWORK

Summary

This paper outlines the application by the Black Solicitors' Network to become a recognised group of the Law Society and invites the Council to confirm the Representation Board's recommendation that such status should be accorded.

Recommendation

The Council is invited to:

Approve, in principle, that the Black Solicitors' Network should be accorded recognised group status by the Law Society on the basis that it would aspire to achieve a membership of 500 in the first two years.

Annex 1 - The Recognition Criteria

Annex 2 - Abstract from the proposed submitted by the Black Solicitors' Network on how it fits the recognition criteria specified in the recognised Groups Agreement and letter from the Stephen Friday

Risk Analysis

Equality and Diversity: The award of official recognition to an ethnic minority group would enable the Society to improve its consultation with and support of ethnic minority members.

Reputational: The Society's credibility as a body equipped to represent the interests of ethnic minority members will be enhanced with the award of official recognition to a group representing this sector.

Freedom of Information: None of the exemptions in the Freedom of Information Code applies.

Author of Report: Evlynne Gilvarry

Date: 16 June 2003

Proposal to award Recognised Group Status to the Black Solicitors' Network

This paper invites the Council to confirm the decision of the Representation Board to accord recognised group status to the Black Solicitors' Network.

The Law Society currently recognises seven groups characterised either by reference to specific demographic factors such as age (Young Solicitors Group), gender (Association of Women Solicitors) or in relation to specific institutional factors such as solicitors working in commerce and industry or local government. These groups seek to represent the specific interests of their memberships.

In a bid to formalise the Society's relationship with recognised groups the Representation Board has drawn up a Recognised Groups' Agreement. The Law Society Council approved the principles of the Agreement on 5 December 2002. The Agreement stipulates “Recognition Criteria” (appended at Annex 1) which must be satisfied by any network of the profession wishing to gain the status of a Law Society recognised group. Recognised status entitles a group to apply for funding and other resources which enables that group to fulfil its representational role.

There is currently no Law Society recognised group to represent the interests of ethnic minority members solicitors, trainees and LPC students. In co-operation with Caroline Herbert, Council member for ethnic minority members, the Law Society initially explored the possibility of encouraging the existing, identifiable ethnic minority groups to join forces and form a unified group that would represent the interests of ethnic minority members. It was thought that a single representative group would streamline the process of consultation and make it easier to allocate resources financial and otherwise.

Although the effort to bring about an umbrella representative group was not successful, it did prompt the Black Solicitors' Network to apply for recognised status. Currently the BSN has 150 members and represents solicitors, registered European lawyers and other categories regulated by the Law Society. The membership is open to those who are either of African or Caribbean descent or who wish to promote the aims and objectives of the Group irrespective of their race, religion colour or creed. The BSN makes clear that its focus is on representing African and Caribbean members who, it regards, suffer the greatest disadvantage.

The Representation Board appointed a small sub-group comprising Angus Andrew, Helen Davies and David Willis to consider the BSN's application in detail and to interview BSN representatives. At its meeting on 11 June 2003 the Representation Board, based on the advice of the sub-group and the information (appended at Annex 2), concluded that the case for recognised status had been made out by the BSN and that all the criteria for recognition had been met. It recommended that the Black Solicitors' Network should be granted recognised status and that the Council should be asked to confirm this. .

The Representation Board further recommended that the BSN should, as a condition of recognised status, be asked to aspire to the achievement of a membership of 500 within two years. Although the exact number of ethnic minority members of the Society is not know it is estimated that the target set for the BSN would represent some 10% of the relevant sector.

Recommendation

The Council is invited to:

ANNEX 1

ABSTRACT FROM THE RECOGNISED GROUPS' AGREEEMENT

SCHEDULE I : THE RECOGNITION CRITERIA

The group represents a discrete and identifiable sector within the solicitors' profession of England and Wales, that is to say, solicitors, registered European lawyers, trainee solicitors, student members of the Law Society and other categories regulated by the Law Society.

That sector is defined by a particular demographic and/or institutional feature which puts it at a disadvantage within society, the solicitors' profession and/or the Law Society. That sector is sufficiently large to constitute a viable pool for membership of the group.

No other recognised representational group represents that sector.

Membership of the group is open to all members of the solicitors' profession who fall within that sector.

Any pastoral care help and support services offered by the Group are open to all members of the solicitors' profession who fall within that sector.

Full membership of the group is open only to members of the solicitors' profession of England and Wales.

The group must be run democratically and fairly.

ANNEX 2

ABSTRACT FROM THE PROPOSAL SUBMITTED BY THE BLACK SOLICITORS' NETWORK'S ON HOW IT FITS THE RECOGNITION CRITERIA SPECIFIED IN THE RECOGNISED GROUPS AGREEMENT

The Recognition Criteria

The Agreement sets out Recognition Criteria (“The Criteria”) which all groups must meet if they are to receive funding through recognised status. The Group's proposal is based on the fact that it meets all of the elements of the Criteria and that it will assist the Law Society in fulfilling an essential part of its Equality and Diversity Strategy and Framework for Action pledge. The Group meets the criteria in the following ways: -

Discreet and identifiable sector within the Solicitors Profession of England and Wales

The Group represents solicitors, registered European lawyers, trainee solicitors and student members of the Law Society and other categories regulated by the Law Society who are either from an African or Caribbean descent or who wish to promote the aims and objectives of the Group irrespective of their race, religion, colour or creed. The Group therefore represents a discreet and identifiable sector within the profession.

The sector is defined by a particular demographic and/or institutional disadvantage

The Law Society's own analysis of the Annual Statistical Report 2001 concluded that there was a shortage of Afro-Caribbean solicitors in the profession. The analysis also concluded that there was a higher proportion of minority ethnic solicitors in smaller firms and in sole practice than their white counterparts; and that within the employed sector they were notably over-represented in some particular areas of work, such as advice services (21.5%) which are less remunerated. However they were mostly under represented in the health service (2.1%) in Governmental departments (2.4%), and in city firms.

A study carried out by the Policy Studies Institute commissioned by the Law Society which looked at the process of becoming a solicitor through the monitoring year by year of a cohort of 4,000 students came to a similar conclusion in 1999 as follows: -

Applicants from minority ethnic groups were less likely than white applicants with the same qualifications and characteristics to be offered a place on the Legal Practice Course.
Applicants from minority ethnic groups were less likely than white applicants with the same qualifications and characteristics to be awarded a training contract.
Applicants from ethnic minority groups were also more likely to get training contracts later than their white counterparts. This is linked to the fact that they were more likely to be offered training contracts in smaller firms and without sponsorship. Generally the City firms which offer high salaries and are more likely to finance trainees through the legal practice course tend to make early training contract offers. Smaller firms which offer more restrictive career progression and are less likely to offer sponsorship make their offers later.
Firms still tend to prefer applicants with certain characteristics including having CPE rather than a law degree, a degree from older universities and prior links with the profession. This puts students from minority ethnic groups at a disadvantage.
There was wide variation in the success of members of different ethnic minority groups in gaining places on the LPC and in gaining traineeships, with Afro Caribbean applicants for both LPC places and traineeships being less successful than other groups. The placing together of all the ethnic minority groups hides greater disparities among those groups than between some of the ethnic minority groups and their white counterparts.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the above is still the case and as such there can be no question that solicitors from an African and Caribbean descent continue to suffer a particular disadvantage in the profession.

No other recognised representational group represents that sector

At present there is no recognised group whose primary remit is to address the disadvantage encountered by solicitors from an African and Caribbean background. While it is noted that the Law Society's preference would be for one group to represent all ethnic minority solicitors, in practice this is not realistic as each ethnic minority community has its own special concerns which only members from that community can truly represent. The idea of an over-arching group made up of representatives of the various ethnic minority groups has been mooted over the years. The Society of Asian Lawyers has recently put forward a proposal along these lines and four years ago Stephen Friday of the Black Solicitors Network formulated a similar paper on a Minority Lawyers Alliance which found some favour with the groups. The formation of such an alliance is however still some way off and the groups do not feel that they should expedite matters simply for the purpose of obtaining recognised group status. Should the Black Solicitors Network be granted recognised group status it intends to liaise with the other ethnic minority groups on issues of joint concern. However, the Black Solicitors Network cannot as a core activity purport to represent the interests of any of the other ethnic minority groups.

Membership of the Group is open to all members of the solicitors profession who fall within that sector

This is clearly met as referred to above.

Pastoral care help and support services offered by the Group are open to all members of the solicitors' profession who fall within that sector

The services provided by the Group as detailed under paragraph 2B above are open to all members of the solicitors' profession who meet the membership criteria of the Group.

Membership of the Group is open only to members of the solicitors' profession of England and Wales

This criteria is met through the qualification for membership established by the Group.

The Group must be run democratically and fairly

The Constitution of the Group sets out a fair and democratic structure for the running of the Group. This is in line with a number of similar groups which have already obtained recognised status.

SF MD BSN 04/01/10

Dr. Parveen Sharma

Head of Groups and Sectors

The Law Society

113 Chancery Lane

London, WC2A IPL

Via e-mail:[email address]

Dear Parveen,

BLACK SOLICITORS' NETWORK (“the Group”)- PROPOSAL FOR LAW SOCIETY RECOGNISED STATUS

I write further to our recent meeting with the sub-committee of the Representation Board (“the Board”) and our subsequent conversation when you asked me (on behalf of the Board) to consider widening the membership base of the Group to embrace all members of the ethnic minorities, as opposed to those only from an African or Caribbean background. You accept that this would necessarily involve a change in the name of the Group to make it more appealing to all members of the ethnic minorities.

I have now had an opportunity of discussing the matter with the directors of the Group and I take this opportunity of informing you of our deliberations. The Group has given the matter serious consideration as it fully appreciates the concern raised by you and the Board. There are clear advantages of having a Group representing all the ethnic minorities and as you know I have personally tried to initiate a Minority Lawyers'Alliance of the various minority law groups. Notwithstanding this the Group has decided that the proposal should proceed on its current basis without amendment.

It is important, however, that you and the Board appreciate the reasons for our decision and I should be grateful if you would pass on a copy of this letter to the Board for their information.

The reasons for the decision are as follows:-

The Group consulted with the other ethnic minority groups (Society of Asian Lawyers, Society of Black Lawyers and Association of Muslim Lawyers) prior to the decision to make the application for recognised status. The Society of Asian Lawyers and The Society of Black Lawyers not only decided that they did not wish to make a similar application, but they have positively supported our application knowing that we were applying on the basis of our particular interests and objectives and not as a new group which may attract members from them. We feel that it is crucial that we maintain the excellent relationship which we have with these groups. Any change in our constitution to widen membership would affect our future working relationships with them.

The Group has its roots in the African and Caribbean communities which are, according to all Law Society's statistics, the most disadvantaged sector in terms of recruitment to and progression through the profession. We feel that keeping the focus of the Group on this sector would target the help where it is much needed rather than having a wider base which would dilute our limited resources.

The other ethnic minorities are well served by existing groups who are well resourced.

It would not be appropriate for us to make cosmetic changes in our constitution just to obtain recognised status if the spirit of the Group is elsewhere. We would not wish to give a commitment which we knew we could not fulfil.

I would also take this opportunity to comment on one issue which seemed to have concerned the Board at our meeting, i.e. the number of members whom we will be able to attract to the Group. The figures given at the meeting suggested that there are around 500 solicitors from the African or Caribbean Community who have given permission for their details to be used for ethnic monitoring purposes and as a result there was an inference that the Group's membership would be limited to this figure. However, direct marketing is only part of our strategy for attracting members. The various seminars and workshops which we will provide will attract members together with the publicity which will surround the relaunch of the Group once the recognised status has been granted. I informed you at the meeting that when I chaired the African Caribbean and Asian Lawyers Group we had over 800 members who were mainly students and trainees. We are confident that we will be able to attract the vast majority of African Caribbean trainees and solicitors given the types of schemes which we intend to put in place. We appreciate that the resources which will be allocated to the Group will be commensurate with the number of members whom we attract. We do not have a problem with this. Our main concern is for the administration of the Group to be based at the Law Society which would mean that our board of directors would have the time to put in place the various schemes which are set out in our proposal.

I trust that the Board will give this letter due consideration and I look forward to receiving their decision following their meeting on the 11^th June.

Kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

STEPHEN FRIDAY

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