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 of equality law on what has been done, focussing on how law 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 both very little known and seen as limiting what employers do to advance equality, much as significant positive action has been taken anyway, at least in this section of the legal profession.

The glimpse into legal practice revealed complex attitudes, persistent barriers to fundamental change, and, in hindsight, that the larger forces driving inequality mean that liberalizing positive action laws was never likely to make much difference.

This case study therefore cautions against overestimating equality law''s power to deliver change while putting forward 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 interventions function in practice before deploying them, and for the full implications of law’s limits to be traced through in politics and society. The urgent need is for renewed effort to discover and build other mechanisms for addressing inequality and the many other major challenges we currently face.