Another diversity issue for the legal profession to tackle
August 06, 2015
There’s much effort being made to consider and tackle the low level of diversity in the English legal professions at the moment. As I wrote in my short blog on a conference on Widening Participation in the Legal Professions, this is heartening – http://halebury.passle.net/post/102cuzr/success-in-legal-careers-for-those-who-arent-privileged-white-men. Sadly, the unconscious bias in favour of those from a privileged background perhaps goes very deep as, once a lawyer from a state school background jumps all the hurdles and gets that dream job, he or she could find themselves getting paid less than public school graduates after a few years. Monitoring and addressing this further diversity problem is vital to keep the state school graduate incentivised to stay the course.
Privately educated UK graduates in high status jobs earn more than their state school counterparts, says a study. The report, by the Sutton Trust and UpReach, examined those in careers such as law and financial services. It found that, on average, three years after graduation, those who attended fee-paying schools earned £4,500 more. The government said it was “determined… to ensure every child, regardless of background, reaches their potential” through its policies. The report put the earnings gap down to factors such as the university attended, but also suggested non-academic factors, such as assertiveness, were at play.
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