Baroness Kennedy is keynote speaker at CoL's 'Diversity at the Bar' debate

The College of Law (CoL) held an event entitled 'Diversity at the Bar' on Monday 16 April, at which leading barrister and human rights expert Baroness Helena Kennedy QC was the keynote speaker. The debate was held in front of an invited audience, as well as being streamed live via the CoL's Facebook page.

Baroness Kennedy and her fellow panel members offered their own views on how to increase diversity at the Bar, as well as taking questions from the audience of aspiring barristers and Bar members. The debate is timely in that the Bar's lack of diversity has come increasingly under scrutiny, most recently with the release of figures for QC nominations revealing that 80% went to men between 2010 and 2012, while the joint Bar Standards Board and Bar Council 'Bar Barometer' report shows that 23% of pupils attended Oxbridge universities, despite Oxbridge students comprising just 1.9% of all students in England and Wales in the 2009-10 academic year.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Baroness Kennedy said: "It is vital to the health of our justice system that everyone, no matter what their background, has equal access to a career in the legal profession and that it fairly reflects the diverse nature of our society. We still have some way to go to achieve this and I’m looking forward to participating in this important debate organised by The College of Law on the best ways of progressing towards this goal."