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Charity talks to Patti Kachidza, Co-Chair of the InterLaw Diversity Forum (IDF) about the various initiatives through which InterLaw are advancing Social Mobility in the Legal Sector.


For those that don’t know what the InterLaw Diversity Forum (IDF) is all about, can you please give an overview?


The InterLaw Diversity Forum was one of the very first cross-sector organisations created to support inclusion for diverse and socially mobile talent working in the legal sector.


InterLaw was founded seventeen years ago by Daniel Winterfeldt MBE – a true trailblazer for DEI in the legal sector. Initially, the forum focused on creating a much-needed safe space for LGBT+ lawyers and business services professionals to network and share best practice on diversity and workplace culture. Since these early days, the InterLaw Diversity Forum has evolved considerably. Our scope has expanded to incorporate race, gender, disability and social mobility and we support almost 10,000 individuals representing over 300 law firms and chambers, and over 500 corporates.


Membership of the InterLaw Diversity Forum is free to anyone in the legal sector, but we also work with a small number of pioneering law firms, who support our work.


Historically, the InterLaw Diversity Forum was best known for our programme of regular events – from speed networking and fireside chats with legal sector leaders, through to topical panels and skills workshops. But alongside this work, the InterLaw Diversity Forum produces a range of sector wide resources and best practice toolkits which give companies guidance on how to implement changes that will help them to hire the best talent in the profession and track their progress as they move up the career ladder.


Our research shows that diverse and socially mobile talent still have differing experiences within our profession. Our work aims to support organisations in their efforts to create fair working practices, inclusive cultures, and to recruit, retain, and promote the best talent.  This year we will be holding our inaugural Social Mobility Summit which demonstrates our commitment to sharing practices and guidance to facilitate social mobility in an increasingly challenging environment.


Interlaw has various initiatives, through which it advances Social Mobility in the Legal Sector. Specifically;


UK Model Diversity Survey


In 2019, the IDF signed a Memorandum with the American Bar Association to adapt the ABA’s US Model Diversity Survey for use in the United Kingdom. This culminated in the creation of the UK Model Survey. What is the purpose of the survey?


Many of your readers will know that from time to time, law firms are asked by their clients to provide detail of the makeup of the teams who carry out the clients’ work. Each client may provide their own template form, or the law firm may have its own template. The UK Model Diversity Survey (or “UK MDS”) is a model diversity questionnaire which is used by law firms and their corporate and financial institution clients as a template for providing the information required.  


The objectives include:



What are the benefits of adopting the survey?


For clients, collecting diversity data from panel law firms is a time intensive administrative process, and brings a range of challenges in collecting, storing and reporting data. The UK MDS saves the time and reduces risk of information important to clients being missed or lack of clarity on what the data illustrates.


For law firms, the programme helps to reduce the resource needed in completing multiple different diversity data requests from multiple clients – allowing firms to dedicate limited diversity resources where they are most needed.


The programme also provides a mechanism to involve and engage client relationship partners in firm diversity efforts. From a law firm perspective, one of the most interesting developments as the programme has become more established is that several firms have now used the UK MDS to reframe their own internal management reporting on diversity.


What makes the UK MDS such a powerful reporting tool is that over 35 law firms are now using the UK MDS as an easy ‘one stop’ form to engage and inform their clients on key metrics and the progress being made on diversity.


Participating law firms and clients receive benchmarking insights and independent analysis of diversity data spanning headcount, hiring, promotion, leavers, leadership, and partner compensation – creating more transparency and leading to a deeper dialogue.


But that's not all! We also provide entirely new insights – tracking the progress being made over time and discussing the factors driving change.


Benchmarking analysis allows us to identify firms who are clearly leading the way in particular areas. For example, a firm might have a strong track record for hiring and promoting lawyers with disabilities, or demonstrating that the gender balance in promotions to Partner reflects the gender balance in the associate pool. We regularly invite firms to share best and next practice and are always encouraged by their willingness to do the work which, year on year gives more insights and improvements on many performance indicators.


What are some of the challenges that IDF faced when the UK MDS was launched in the UK?


When the survey was initially introduced, some firms were naturally apprehensive about participating. The UK Model Diversity Survey collects more detailed diversity data than firms were used to sharing. We took this into consideration and reassured our signatories about confidentiality and compliance with data privacy regulations. Feedback from clients was that they wanted more detail about their panel firms, so that when they made their decisions on appointing firms to their panels, they could use data from a tailored industry standard template to support their decisions.


Firms have historically been able to control the narrative on diversity with their clients. We all love to talk about success stories – but it can feel exposing to acknowledge shortfalls and not all firms were ready to take this next step in their journey. We ensure that we work with law firms at their pace and discuss concerns on an ongoing basis.


Three years in, a number of the firms who were initially apprehensive about taking part are among the most active and vocal champions of the programme!


Inclusive Recruitment Toolkit


Hiring practices in the legal sector are not without their challenges. This is particularly with regards to ensuring there are no barriers to Inclusion when interviewing and hiring candidates for any role, whether in private practice or in house.


Who was the toolkit designed for?


The Inclusive Hiring Toolkit was designed for anyone involved in recruitment in the legal sector – from recruitment specialists and HR practitioners, through to hiring managers and leaders involved in the interview process.  


We found that even in firms with considerable resources and sophisticated hiring practices, gaps and barriers exist which, often inadvertently, undermine inclusion commitments.


It was very important to us that the Toolkit should be free and available to all, to ensure that all in the legal sector, regardless of resources or budget, are able to benefit from the practical insights we provide.


What were the IDF’s main objectives in creating the toolkit?


Ultimately, we wanted to produce something really practical, that will help those involved in recruitment to ensure that the approach at each stage in the process is fair and inclusive.


To ensure we took an informed approach, we conducted a series of focus group discussions with legal sector in-house and external recruiters to explore innovation and best practice and to uncover inclusion related challenges and barriers. The toolkit provides easy-to-implement solutions to these challenges.


What does the toolkit provide?


This toolkit provides:


What are some of the barriers to inclusive hiring that have been identified when developing the toolkit?


Through our research with legal sector recruiters, we identified six overarching challenges:


1. Hiring Manager bias:

Both internal and external recruiters highlighted that hiring manager bias is commonplace in the lateral hiring process. We learned that it is not uncommon to see a reluctance among hiring managers to consider candidates who do not “tick the traditional boxes”.


2. A lack of rigour and consistency in lateral hiring processes:

Recruiters highlighted issues ranging from unstructured hiring processes to a lack of discipline and controls (meaning at times well crafted, structured processes are not being followed correctly). We found that this often increases the risk of subjective decision making.


3. Poor access to meaningful data:

While many participating recruiters shared best practice around collecting and reporting diversity data for their graduate or early talent schemes, many employers either do not have the systems capability or reporting discipline to track diversity data meaningfully in their lateral hiring processes. This makes it challenging to identify disparities or concerns.


4. Are organisations living up to their commitment to diversity?:

External recruiters reported that candidates are expressing more concern around the authenticity of employer diversity commitments, particularly within law firms. Candidates want reassurance that firms are walking the talk.


5. Misuse of targets and shortlist requirements:

Hiring targets and diverse shortlist requirements are increasingly being used by employers, but some external recruiters reported misuse of these interventions, including requests for minority-only shortlists (which of course would defeat the aim of inclusion). In our panel discussions, we emphasise the principle of fairness and designing a recruitment process which aims to include EVERYONE.


6. Power dynamics:

We also found that hierarchies and power dynamics often leave external recruiters feeling powerless to speak up or challenge exclusionary attitudes or poor hiring practices.


What are the some of the positive outcomes that have been reported by those who used the toolkit?


The feedback on the toolkit has been tremendous. Some firms report using the checklist as a gap analysis tool, to identify priorities and focus areas, while several in-house legal teams have not only used the toolkit to inform and support legal recruitment, but wider organisational-wide hiring efforts.  For me, this is a great example of best practice developed by the InterLaw Diversity Forum for the legal sector reaching far beyond into other industries. We have also helped provide firms with content for their newsletters and other internal communications. Our training offering has also been expanded, and our leadership team deliver tailored workshops including on mental health in partnership with Lawcare, Inclusive Leadership and culture workshops incorporating the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority (SRA’s) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA’s) expectations for individuals and firms, and these have been very well received by attendees.


Student Lab


Since its inception in 2019, the Student Lab Summit is another initiative through which IDF has been supporting high performing diverse students who are aspiring lawyers.


In what way does this summit serve as an insightful early careers event for aspiring lawyers?


Student Lab was introduced five years ago as an engine to ensure that the best talent from the widest array of backgrounds, universities, and geographies across the UK are given the tools they need to secure their entry into the profession. I was honoured to have participated alongside my colleagues and representatives from law firms and corporates and to meet the enthusiastic and highly talented aspiring lawyers who managed to secure a seat on the programme. I really wish there had been such programmes when I was at university!


Student Lab combines highly practical insights and takeaways on approaching the legal sector hiring process, through to candid, deep-dive discussions with early-career solicitors, barristers and legal sector leaders. Students also gain an unrivalled opportunity to network and forge contacts with lawyers and recruiters from our supporting law firms. Our 2024 Student Lab was supported by A&O Shearman, Arnold & Porter, BCLP, Cooley, Flex Legal, Fried Frank, Goodwin Procter, Latham & Watkins, Milbank, Morrison Foerster, Ropes & Gray and Stevens & Bolton.


With all these amazing initiatives that IDF has been implementing to date, what can you share about what the future holds? Are there any more initiatives in the pipeline?


We are dotting the i's and crossing the t's on this year’s programme of over 30 events which, as ever, will incorporate a strong focus on education, allyship, leadership, and intersectionality.


Change in relation to culture, inclusion and diversity is always going to be incremental but we firmly believe that the legal sector will achieve more if we work together, than if firms and in-house teams work in isolation. With this in mind, collaboration really sits at the heart of our future plans. Our approach to collaboration will take a number of forms in the year to come.


This year, the first sector wide report on the UK Model Diversity Survey will be launched, highlighting sector wide trends across five years, and sharing best and next practice from firms who have seen the most tangible progress. We believe that taking a data driven approach to identify “what works” – not just on an individual firm basis, but sector wide will open up entirely new insights, and opportunities to collaborate.


We recently formed a new sector-wide network for Employee Resource Group Senior Champions. The network brings together the Partners, Leaders and Business Professionals who sponsor diversity efforts alongside their “day-job”. Our goal is to facilitate connections, and to provide a forum to discuss solutions to shared challenges. The network has already garnered a huge following, both in private practice and in-house and we believe it will go from strength to strength this year.


Finally, our latest Career Progression in the Legal Sector report will be published this year. This has built on the first ground-breaking report published in 2012. The output of the research will highlight the key drivers and inhibitors of job satisfaction and job security for diverse and socially mobile lawyers. We will collaborate with firms and wider organisations to create strand-specific factsheets, making it easy for all in the sector to understand and act on the findings.


The aim is to not just inspire change for the better in the profession, but to equip our members and partners to adopt best in class practices so their firms are great places to work.


Patti Kachidza

Co-Chair, InterLaw Diversity Forum

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattikachidza/


https://www.interlawdiversityforum.org/


January 2025


Charity Mafuba, Commissioning Editor, Solicitor (England and Wales), New York Attorney