Diversity network calls for City firms to retain more BAME lawyers

City firms should focus on retaining and developing BAME lawyers to ensure their workforces are diverse and multicultural, in addition to improving recruitment, the diversity network NOTICED has said.

In a new report, the organisation recommends several steps that law firms should take to increase diversity. As the Law Gazette reports, these are:

• adopting or developing robust and comprehensive strategies to gather data on BAME employees;
• continuing to evaluate their recruitment processes;
• developing an action plan to better understand whether retention of employees from a BAME background is an issue;
• developing an action plan to counter attrition of employees from a BAME background to the extent that this is identified as an issue; and
• adopting aspirational targets in relation to the recruitment and retention of employees from a BAME background.

NOTICED counts several leading firms among its members, including Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Eversheds Sutherland, Herbert Smith Freehills and Hogan Lovells.

Siddhartha Shukla, co-chair of NOTICED and a senior associate at Herbert Smith Freehills, said: “I am confident that our network has identified the key themes that law firms and other organisations in the UK would be open to considering and implementing. These recommendations should also help to reassure future candidates that diversity and inclusion are more than just buzzwords for law firms.”