Roundtable: Talking diversity and inclusivity with Heriot Brown In-House Legal Recruitment and Voice At The Table

Diversity, equity and inclusion is one of the defining concepts of the modern age, both within everyday life and in the workplace.

While great strides have been made within the legal profession over the years with regards to representation of women, ethnic minorities and disabled professionals, there is still some way to go before the playing field is truly levelled.

For example, according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority while 60 per cent on in-house lawyers are female, just 23 per cent of GC roles are occupied by women. Those from BAME backgrounds and disabled professionals constituted just 18 and 1.5 per cent of in-house lawyers respectively.

In-house legal recruitment experts Heriot Brown and DEI consultancy Voice At The Table hosted two roundtable sessions as part of The Lawyer’s General Counsel Strategy Summit. The sessions centred on discussions around factors such as the importance of diversity, the factors preventing greater diversification, the benefits of a diverse workforce, and how counsel can influence the wider legal profession on DEI issues.

Scott Brown, founder and managing director of Heriot Brown In-House Legal Recruitment said: “In our experience, despite inspirational Company Policy Statements on D&I we rarely find that it filters down to hiring managers and recruitment processes. Diversity and inclusion does not seem to be one of the top priorities for hiring decisions by in-house legal teams. As suppliers of talent, we want to work with in-house legal teams to change this.”

Diversity of thought

A good starting point would be to understand why diversity is important, both from a business perspective and for the individual.

From the business perspective, Founder and CEO of Voice At The Table Rina Goldenberg Lynch outlined five global trends that require diversity of thought within a legal team, including: Globalisation, the need to create ‘customercentricism’ by reflecting external diversity internally, the need for personnel from diverse backgrounds to help solve complex cross-border regulatory issues, a general shortage of talent, and a need to drive creativity and innovation

Indeed, one GC in attendance commented that: “A diversity of problem solving and mindset is essential. Transaction have grown so complex, with multiple regulations and laws in play at any one time that a team made up of personnel from one background simply can’t do it anymore.”

For the wider business, diverse lawyers with a variety of backgrounds and education can give your team a competitive advantage. For the individual however, the need for diversity stems from a lack of role models throughout the industry, which can stifle progression or ambition.

One GC in attendance commented: “If you come from a non-traditional background, you can be unaware of the opportunities that exist. The path to partnership can be unclear if you don’t have friends or family to offer advice. You’re in a game where you don’t know the rules.”

The danger of statistics

While the importance of diversity is there for all to see, roundtable attendees agreed that raw statistics do not paint a full picture. Recruitment can in some cases be cosmetic and conducted more for PR reasons than for the benefit of a legal team or the newly hired lawyer themselves.

One attendee stated: “There has been a remarkable transition in just 5 years. We’ve gone from a white, blonde, male dominated industry to a fairly diverse environment. I am worried however that the pace of change indicates a ‘tick box’ culture. It’s all well and good hiring a diverse group of people, but you have to follow through beyond cosmetics.”

True diversity comes from nurturing the inclusivity process throughout a lawyer’s career, not just in the hiring process. “We need to go beyond the recruitment stage and extend it into retention, training and advancement,” said one GC.

Indeed, one attendee mentioned that it is as important to monitor the demographic of the personnel leaving an organisation or team as it is to monitor those being recruited. If a particular demographic is leaving at a high rate, it could be a sign of an organisation not catering to their needs.

One GC at a multinational energy company said: “You need to be careful when looking at raw statistics. I’ve known instances wherein ethnic minorities have been involved in the pitch but then not involved in the main project. Organisations need to make sure these individuals are involved the whole way through, otherwise its pointless. You need to look at whether diversity is part of the hiring process, the development process and whether those individuals can progress to the very senior levels.”

Influencing internal and external stakeholders

With the issues surrounding diversity outlined, attention during the discussion turned to how counsel can influence the diversity process both within their organisation and their external firms.

Many organisations are now incorporating diversity quotas into their panel process. Beyond simply encouraging diversity within a panel, one attendee’s organisation offers what it called micro and macro incentives to promote.

The micro incentive sees 10 per cent weighting given to diversity when deciding whether a firm is to be added to the panel. The macro incentive goes one further by granting an automatic place on the organisation’s panel to the firm with the ‘highest score’ on a range of diversity criteria.

For improvements internally, attendees stressed the importance of hiring methods such as blind CVs. They also stressed the need to consider backgrounds when it comes to experience. For example, personnel from some backgrounds may not have had the opportunity to undertake pro bono work.

Attendees went on to highlight the importance of recruiters. They stressed that recruiters should take the lead in educating their clients on DEI issues, and how organisations can best go about tapping into a more diverse talent pool.

Both Heriot Brown and Voice At The Table agreed to continue the discussion on diversity and for attendants to continue sharing their ongoing DEI initiatives. Both organisations provided closing statements to summarise the event and to outline a path forward.