ROLLONFRIDAY STORY, 17TH FEBRUARY 2006
Clients force firms to take diversity seriously...
The days of City firms simply paying lip service to the issue of staff diversity may be over. Barclays is asking all its panel firms for statistics on the gender and ethnic background of their staff.
The request has already gone out to some of the largest firms in the City - Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, DLA, Freshfields, Linklaters, Lovells and Simmons & Simmons. And the bank confirmed that it would soon be requiring this information from every firm it instructs. Seeing that it has ten panels, that's an awful lot of lawyers.
Barclays' lead will undoubtedly be followed by many other big clients. These requests are already common in the States, and the UK government wrote to the top 100 firms at the end of 2005 asking for this information to be provided by the end of next month.
|
|
||
|
|
Diversity in a City partnership: men in dark grey suits and in light grey suits |
|
|
|
It has long been the case that partners in City law firms have been overwhelmingly white and male (and often slightly overweight with occasional personal hygiene issues). If banks, government departments and other trophy clients start withholding instructions and hitting their profits, this could change very quickly. This week's developments at Berwin Leighton Paisner (see story) show how seriously firms are now taking this issue.