Can the Accutrainee model have any impact on diversity?

Originally posted on The Lawyer, here’s our view on the Accutrainee model and what impact it may have on diversity:

Deemed by some a cut price training scheme, the new Accutrainee model claims to offer law firms a way of reducing recruitment costs, whilst not sacrificing headcount. Law firms, it appears, will be able to cut down on the number of training contracts they offer, and instead turn to Accutrainee for would be solicitors. But could this new model have a positive impact on diversity within the legal profession?

It’s no secret that my personal view on the pledges made by certain firms about increasing their diversity initiatives is, put simply, that they are more often than not cosmetic. So when cost savings come into the equation, could such schemes kick start real long term, meaningful changes to diversity? I suspect so.

Diversity League Table and UK Diversity Legal Awards

We attended the BSN Diversity League Table launch on Monday, and what a night it was! The event, hosted by Linklaters also saw the announcement of the UK Diversity Legal Awards winners – which we had the pleasure of sponsoring.

The evening was a great success and attendees had the opportunity to listen to Solicitor General, Edward Garnier QC MP who delivered the keynote speech, followed by a great diversity panel discussion with participants including the co-chair of the Gender Nat Linklaters, and the editor of the Diversity League Table.  What was particularly interesting to hear were the real steps being made by the legal profession to increase diversity.

Then came the awards.  Sidley Austin, scooped the award for “Recruitment -Attracting Talent” and 25 Bedford Row received the award for “Retention-Talent Management”, which we sponsored. The award for “Diversity Champion 2011” was awarded to two candidates – Rita Tappia, from Shoosmiths and Paulette Mastin from Linklaters were both presented with an award for their outstanding work. Big congratulations to all the winners!

Ethics in the City

Originally published on Legal Prospects

The scale of City workers pay and the ethics of modern capitalism is a hot topic at the moment which we have been monitoring closely. While protesters have been camped outside St. Paul’s Cathedral for over a month now, demonstrating against corporate greed, a report released by St. Paul’s Institute has revealed that 75% of respondents agreed that there is too great a gap between the rich and the poor in the UK.

The survey ‘Value & Values: Perceptions of ethics in the City today’ found that 66% of respondents felt that City Bankers – and the lawyers that work for them – are paid too much adding to the perception that capitalism is synonymous with greed. With the debate heating up in relation to the balance of business and ethics – is it now time for the legal profession to start tackling this issue?

The English legal profession has moved a long way from the public perception captured by Charles Dickens in Bleak House. However the pace of change has been slow. Should lawyers now be looking at more ethical ways to approach business and question decisions further instead of focusing on monetary gain? While there are obviously regulatory bodies in place, such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and the Bar Standards Board to monitor lawyers, more needs to done to help improve the ethics and perception of the profession.

Quotas – Good or bad?

We were very interested to see the announcement recently from Ashurst, which has become the first leading UK law firm to introduce a quota for the number of women it wants to employ in management positions. As our job is to source the best talent in the profession all the time, we are always keen to see the latest thinking behind employment trends, and the debate over diversity keeps raising its head.

Ashurst has made a bold move in its attempt to tackle the balance of the genders. It is good to see that someone has at last begun to take some real action even though the idea of quotas is deeply unfashionable. However, Ashurst has set itself a difficult task. It’s all well and good having targets but the really credible thinking about diversity suggests that you can’t get away from servicing the fundamental demands of the business which means always getting the best person for the job. And for that matter, there are a lot of women who wouldn’t want a promotion on the basis of their gender but rather for their competence.

So perhaps the real work needs to be done on the pathway to partnership, making sure that high calibre women actually get to the point where they can take advantage of opportunities.

Let us know what you think. Do you think quotas are a good or bad idea?