SRA, BSB and other legal professional bodies to attend Pride 2017 festivals

Organisations from across the legal sector, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will once again be attending the Birmingham and London Pride festivals in a show of support for and celebration of the LGBT community.

This will be the third year that the SRA has attended two of the United Kingdom’s biggest Pride festivals, which this year will also be attended by representatives from the Bar Standards Board, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Council for Licensed Conveyancers, Intellectual Property Regulation Board, Legal Services Board, Legal Services Consumer Panel, Legal Ombudsman and local law firms. Only 3% of solicitors publicly identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual, while the gay rights charity Stonewall estimates that 5-7% of the UK population are LGBT. The discrepancy between the legal profession and the wider population could be due to a reluctance among some lawyers to openly declare their sexuality. In response, the SRA moved to work with 15 law firms to create a support package to help encourage more inclusive workplaces across the legal profession, including guidance on positive changes that can be made in workplaces.

Jane Malcolm, executive director of the SRA, said: "We are delighted that we are supporting two of the largest Pride festivals in the UK. This will be a celebration of both the wider LGBT community and the role it plays in a diverse, modern legal profession. It is important that we have a truly diverse profession, attracting the best talent and reflecting the community it serves. We want to understand how the profession is changing and any barriers to progression. So we have made changes to our forthcoming 2017 firm diversity data collection exercise, adding in a new question about transgender that provides an option for solicitors who do not identify exclusively as male or female."