Rare Race Fairness Commitment signed by 29 more firms

Last year LawCareers.Net reported that 17 law firms had joined the pledge to combat career obstacles faced by minority ethnic lawyers, in partnership with Rare Recruitment. An additional 29 major law firms have now signed the Race Fairness Commitment (RFC), a mutual pledge to strive for racial equality within legal organisations. The RFC, now backed by 48 organisations, is a data-driven approach to facilitate the legal profession to recruit, retain and develop ethnic minority talent.

Available for free for all employers, the RFC includes pathfinding measures such as close analysis of the quantitative data and monitoring throughout careers, from recruitment to senior promotion, to identify and address the stage at which Black, Asian and minority ethnic lawyers are unjustly falling behind their peers. Firms must also commit to new and robust training, monitoring, mentorship and other fixed measures to ensure that race and racism are better recognised and discussed internally, including in every induction and exit interview.

The RFC helps signatories by identifying actions as part of a long-term plan to work towards in the hopes of improving the progression and recruitment in the legal profession.

Raphael Mokades, managing director at Rare said signing the RFC is, “a brave step for law firms to take, as well as a necessary one. It goes beyond merely not discriminating, and it goes beyond the usual diversity and inclusion activities you see at many organisations. For law firms, it’s about recognising a problem and hunting it down.”

The RFC’s newest signatories are:

• Albany Beck
• Baker McKenzie
• Bates Wells
• Bird & Bird
• Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
• Burges Salmon
• Burness Paull
• Clyde & Co
• CMS
• Cooley
• Dechert
• DLA Piper
• Farrer & Co
• Fieldfisher
• Gowling
• Harneys
• Hill Dickinson
• Howard Kennedy
• Kingsley Napley
• McAllister Olivarius
• Mischon de Reya
• Osborne Clarke
• Pennington Manches Cooper
• Reed Smith
• Simmons & Simmons
• Stephenson Harwood
• Stone King
• Taylor Wessing
• Withers
• Board Intelligence
• Goodlord

For more information on Diversity & Inclusion in the legal profession, head to LCN’s Diversity Hub.