The leader of the country’s barristers has admitted that she is “ashamed” by her profession’s failure to improve the number of black lawyers at the Bar.
Amanda Pinto QC said that barristers should not “be glossing over” the fact that there were not enough black people among their number and that not enough had been done to attract and retain the “undoubted talent” that they possessed.
She suggested that stereotypes and the unfair allocation of work were among the factors inhibiting black barristers from progressing.
Ms Pinto’s comments came as she announced that a new “race working group” had been set up by the Bar Council to improve diversity.
She said that action was necessary because only 3.2 per cent of barristers were from a black British background, while only 8.1 per cent of QCs were from a black, Asian or other ethnic minorities. She said that was “a poor statistic when 14.4 per cent of the working population identify as BAME” but that black barristers in particular were not faring as well as they should.
She added: “We shouldn’t be glossing over the fact that we haven’t managed to attract and retain the undoubted talent that there is among the black community.
“If people feel that they cannot progress in the same way that their white colleagues are doing that’s very undermining.”
Ms Pinto added: “What we want to be able to do is look at factors that are hindering access, retention, progression and work out what we need to do to address that and put that in place. Every part of the chain needs to be addressed.”
Examples included not having “stereotypes of who might do what work” and “making a positive effort to make sure that everybody is on a level playing field” when cases were being assigned.
