15 May 2026
Diversity is one of the most talked-about topics in the legal profession and yet at the same time, one of the slowest to actually shift.
Almost every firm has a diversity policy in place, while many have strategies or even a team dedicated to ensuring that they provide equal opportunities and support to everyone.
Many larger firms go as far as proudly signing up to one charter or another, complete with thorough assessments and reports of their progress.
However, let’s be honest. While HR and leadership teams might be driving for change, not every member of the profession might be fully up to speed and that has an impact.
So, what is going on and can firms do anything about it?
It is worth being honest about the data because the headline numbers and the underlying experience tell two quite different stories.
The good news first is that according to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s latest workforce data, 55 per cent of lawyers are now women, up from 48 per cent in 2015.
The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers has climbed from 14 per cent to 20 per cent over the same decade.
Representation of LGB lawyers is now broadly in line with the wider working population at around 4.5 per cent.
Less encouraging is what happens further up the ladder. Only 40 per cent of partners are women and at the largest firms (50 partners or more), that figure drops to just 31 per cent for full equity partners.
Lawyers from lower socio-economic backgrounds make up just 18 per cent of the profession and have actually fallen as a share since 2015.
Disability disclosure rates sit at around six per cent, well below the roughly 19 per cent figure for the working-age population.
In other words, the front door has been opened, but that much-admired “corner office”, not so much.
There is a popular assumption that diversity in law is essentially a pipeline problem. Get more people from different backgrounds in at the trainee level and the rest will look after itself.
That theory has been tested for ten years now and the results are mixed at best. The pipeline has widened, but the progression has not kept up.
One reason is uncomfortable but important to talk about. Recruiting people from different backgrounds is not the same as creating an environment in which they can thrive.
A firm can hire a brilliantly diverse cohort of trainees and still lose most of them by year five because nobody around them understands how to support, manage and develop them well.
This is where training does the heavy lifting that policies and statements cannot. I can hear the collective groan as we write – not more training.
We understand the frustration, but good training does not turn people into experts on every culture, condition or lived experience.
It builds the everyday awareness, language and confidence to manage differences well.
It helps a supervising partner know when an offhand comment lands differently than they intended.
It gives a team leader the tools to run inclusive meetings, fair appraisals and supportive return-to-work conversations.
As a whole, across a practice, it quietly raises the standard of how people get treated, which results in people staying in the profession for longer as they feel comfortable in the place they work and the people they work alongside.
If progression is the biggest unfinished story in legal diversity, neurodiversity is arguably its most overlooked chapter.
Estimates suggest that 15 to 20 per cent of the UK population is neurodivergent, covering conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia and others.
Applied to the legal sector, that points to somewhere in the region of 48,000 neurodivergent legal professionals in the UK.
Despite those numbers, a 2024 survey by Neurodiversikey of legal students and professionals found that 76 per cent had not disclosed their neurotype to their employer to avoid discrimination, while more than half had experienced discrimination in the legal sector where they had.
Scarily, only two per cent of respondents agreed that legal education and training were fully neuroinclusive.
That gap matters for two reasons, the first being quite human. Working in a profession where you feel you have to mask who you are is exhausting and it is one of the main reasons talented people leave.
Now for the commercial reason. Neurodivergent thinkers often bring exactly the skills the modern legal sector needs, such as pattern recognition, deep focus and hyperfixation of passion topics and finally, lateral problem solving.
The ability to see what others miss is exactly why many fields, such as technology, have seen an influx of neurodivergent people, who are able to work around issues to deliver amazing outcomes.
Firms that learn to support that talent properly have a real advantage and many firms recognise this.
Norton Rose Fulbright, Herbert Smith Freehills and others have invested in dedicated neurodiversity networks and external partnerships, for example.
However, the practice is still concentrated at the top of the market and most firms do not yet have the in-house knowledge to support people effectively, including finding the right approach to support neurodiverse clients as well.
The training that actually moves the dial tends to share a few features.
It is honest and does not pretend that everyone arrives with the same starting knowledge or that anyone is going to get every conversation right. Instead, it creates room to learn rather than room to perform.
It is practical and gives leave learners with things they can use on Monday morning, rather than some complex theory or set of rule.
It is layered and uses a combination of core bite-sized e-learning, role-specific modules and short refresher content that people are happy to engage with.
Finally, it is current. We regularly speak with practices that moan that their existing training is years out of date and generally out of touch with current thinking. If the course was prepared even five years ago, it is unlikely to reflect where the conversation has reached today.
We have spent years building diversity, equity and inclusion training designed specifically for legal sector teams.
Our existing library covers the core areas, from inclusive recruitment and unconscious bias through to bystander training and inclusive leadership.
This year, we have also launched a new suite of neurodiversity courses aimed at filling the gap that so many firms have told us they are wrestling with.
The courses cover the foundations of neurodiversity at work, the legal duty around reasonable adjustments, practical guidance for managers and team-level training to help colleagues understand and support each other better.
Every course is CPD-accredited, mobile-friendly and built to fit around busy practice schedules, with full reporting so you can evidence training across the firm.
If your policies are in good shape but your training is not yet matching them, this is a sensible place to start.