A government report published last year revealed that only 10% of solicitors in City law firms are from ethnic minority backgrounds, which is worrying. The root cause could be the lack of ethnic minorities applying. However, are firms also responsible for this? City law firms are obliged to adopt a variety of equal opportunity policies, which include monitoring of progression by gender and ethnicity, addressing diversity issues through training and development strategies, and transparency in recruitment practices. However, statistics suggest that these policies are maybe pointless in practice.
In light of their equal opportunity policies, firms publicise ‘diversity’ as an important concept of their working ethos, which is one way of attracting ethnic minorities to apply for trainee and qualified positions. For example, Linklaters, one of the top law firms in the City, advocate that they are “a cosmopolitan team in which it’s accepted that the differences between individuals help us to build stronger, more creative teams”. Moreover, they advertise saying, “Linklaters can’t be anything but a melting pot of different nationalities, cultures and outlooks”. Such persuasive comments are attractive and encouraging for those potential applicants from ethnic minority backgrounds.
In addition, another high-ranking City law firm also claims that “Our staff come from many different religious, racial and social backgrounds”. This seems appealing for ethnic minorities who have the desire and relevant skills and prospects to apply for legal positions. However, statistics of their Partner and Staff profile suggest otherwise and don’t share the same enthusiasm. At present, only 15% of trainee solicitors recruited by the firm are from ethnic minority backgrounds. Furthermore, only 9% of their qualified lawyers and 5% of their partners are from ethnic minority backgrounds. The statistics also show that less than one fifth of the firm is made up of ethnic minorities at trainee level, and very little are retained at associate level and awarded partner positions.
Recently, in legal magazine The Lawyer it was disclosed that only 3% of partners in the UK’s top 100 law firms are from ethnic minority backgrounds. A third of the firms surveyed have no partners who are ethnic minorities at all and The Lawyer revealed that of the firms, Addelshaw Goddard, Eversheds, Irwin Mitchell, and Linklaters were amongst the top City firms that lacked ethnic minorities at partner level. Surprisingly, Allen & Overy, currently ranked as one of the top five City firms, was also noted to have no partners from ethnic minorities in London. Bird & Bird was found to have no Black, mixed-race or Chinese associates in London, but 1.23% of its associates were Asian.
After the worrying findings of the lack of ethnic minorities at partner level in City law firms, The Lawyer wrote to all these firms and the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) also followed up letters to each of the firms, independently addressing this problem. At the same time the Government released a paper entitled ‘Increasing Diversity in the Legal Profession’, where the paper required firms to publish diversity statistics. These measures are hopeful for more recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities at higher positions in City law firms.
Despite a lack of ethnic minorities at partner and associate level, there is progress being made at trainee level, and this was also highlighted by The Lawyer’s findings. CMS Cameron McKenna has a 21.87% ethnic minority trainee figure, Clifford Chance has 20.43 %, with Simmons & Simmons and Richards Butler close behind. Linklaters also proudly proclaim that 31% of its 130 trainees for 2007-08 were ethnic minorities. This is an encouraging sign that more ethnic minorities are being attracted and recruited, but reinforces that whilst more ethnic minorities are being recruited as trainees, very little are retained or awarded partner positions.
As mentioned earlier, all firms upheld the concept of diversity as important within the makeup of their workforce and claim to be widening the net they recruit from. This can be seen in the number of diversity initiatives in which City law firms participate. For instance, Linklaters have sponsored the Global Graduates programme, which focuses on students from disadvantaged communities. Last year, four students from Global Graduates were offered training contracts with Linklaters. This is encouraging.
Furthermore, top City law firms such as Linklaters, Allen & Overy and Addelshaw Goddard are also active in Legal Chances, a multi-firm initiative that aims to promote City careers to students who are currently underrepresented in the UK legal profession. Also, this year Addelshaw Goddard has, from their summer vacation scheme (from which they recruit about 40% of the trainees), recruited 16% of students from ethnic minority backgrounds.
As firms are increasingly participating in diversity programmes, there may be other reasons for a lack of ethnic minorities recruited at City law firms. As mentioned earlier, it may be that not enough ethnic minorities are applying. Many people from ethnic minority backgrounds have both the intellect and academic credentials to make great business lawyers, but for a variety of reasons they still don’t apply. This could be the reason why so few ethnic minorities are recruited and, in turn, so few are retained and awarded partner positions. Many ethnic minorities are more interested in pursuing legal careers in the criminal law sector or property law sector. As City law firms mainly specialise in commercial and corporate law, this may be unappealing for those ethnic minorities who are interested in pursuing a career in criminal and family law.
In conclusion, there is still a lack of ethnic minorities in the workforce of City law firms. Despite an increase of ethnic minorities being attracted and recruited at trainee level, there is still a big deprivation at associate and partner level, and this is particularly noticeable in top City law firms in the UK. This is disappointing considering these firms are requested to adopt ‘equal opportunity for all’ policies and should select on the basis of merit. However, the positives to be gleaned are that this problem has been noted and steps are being taken by government officials to ensure adequate responses are made. Overall, the problem of under-representation in City law firms should be on-route to being mended. What should not be forgotten is that it is not only City law firms that face the issue of underrepresentation of ethnic minorities, but also other businesses in the City.
AREAS OF LAW EXPLAINED
Hazel Roberts provides an overview of Intellectual Property Law and Corporate Law.
Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property law concerns copyright, patent, trade secret, design and trademark rights (amongst others) and is evolving quickly as an important area of law, particularly with fast-paced developments in biotechnology, interactive multimedia and the Internet. The study of intellectual property law involves a combination of constitutional, statutory and policy issues – and contact with a variety of businesses and personalities outside the law, from the domains of medicine to the music industry.
In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements, which attach to certain types of information, ideas or other intangibles in their expressed form. The holder of this legal entitlement is generally entitled to exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term “intellectual property” denotes the specific legal rights, which authors, inventors and other IP holders may possess and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.
Intellectual property law is useful as it gives businesses a competitive edge in the market and adds real capital value to the business. Failure to protect IP can lose a business significant potential added value. Intellectual property services offered by law firms may include risk management and safeguarding intellectual property assets, registering and safeguarding trade mark rights, IP brand protection strategies, and advice to protect against copyright infringement of works created by software houses, publishers, photographers, writers and artists.
Such law firms assist their clients with protecting, developing and exploiting their brands, copyright, trade marks and other intellectual property – from developing a brand and image protection strategy through to enforcement of IP rights, and recovery of damages for infringement of those rights. They aim to maintain and enhance the asset value and give you the competitive edge held by the business.
The basic public policy rationale for the protection of IP is that IP laws facilitate and encourage the pursuit of innovation into the public domain and for the common good, by granting potential owners of these exclusive rights to exploit their works and invention for a limited period. There has, however, been controversy in this area and criticism very much exists. In more recent years the public benefit idea has been downplayed in favour of the idea that the primary purpose of exclusive rights is to benefit the rights holder, even to the detriment of society at large.
The purposes of laws dealing with exclusive rights over intangible subject matter, or the product of intellectual or creative endeavor have varied, but they all share in common the appearance of granting the “owner” of the exclusive rights a monopoly on the copying or distribution of a protected form of “property”.
In recent times there has been an expansion in intellectual property laws. This can be seen in the extension of laws to new types of subject matter such as databases, in the regulation of new categories of activity in respect of subject matter already protected, in the increase of terms of protection, in the removal of restrictions and limitations on exclusive rights, and in an expansion of the definition of “author” to include corporations as the legitimate creators and owners of works. The concept of work for hire has also had the effect of treating a corporation or business owner as the legal author of work created by employees. The increase in terms of protection is particularly seen in relation to copyright, which has recently been the subject of serial extensions in Europe and the US.
Firms that work in the area of IP law include Kaltons Technology Solicitors (
www.kaltons.co.uk Bristows (
www.bristows.com and Walker Morris (
www.walkermorris.co.uk
Corporate Law
Corporate law, as the name suggests, is the field of law that concerns the creation, operation and regulation of corporations and other business organisations.
A corporation is a legal entity which, while being composed of natural persons, exists completely separately from them. This separation gives the corporation unique powers which other legal entities lack. The extent and scope of its status and capacity is determined by the erstwhile law of the land, thus members of a corporation typically have limited liability while corporations enjoy perpetual lifetimes.
Corporation law, thus, governs the intricacies of the above, while also including the law governing the relationships among various constituents of a corporation such as shareholders, directors and management. In Britain law firms dealing with corporate law, typically classify themselves as specialists in corporate and commercial law which in several cases outlines their ability to deal with smaller and more commercial ventures rather than the stereotypical large corporate. As Dixon Minto, one of the most respected firms in the industry proclaims, “The firm is totally committed to delivering the highest standard of service to all clients whether small, medium or large, private or public.”
Corporate law also sometimes includes securities laws, which govern the conditions under which corporations can issue shares and is aimed at preventing fraudulent offering schemes. Generally, however, Corporate law is considered to be distinct from the fields of law that are principally concerned with the relationship between a corporation and a third party, such as commercial law, antitrust law, and environmental law. These are further specialisations and in today’s world are increasingly becoming the focus of many smaller firms.
An increasing number of firms have sprung up in the last few years specialising in these fields, and expansion has become a necessity rather than a luxury. For example, Dixon Minto claims, “Even after doubling our office space in London and Edinburgh we are struggling to accommodate our employees.”
Examples of questions that corporate law helps pose answers to are:
Under what circumstances may a corporation engage in a transaction (such as renting property) with a director?
What responsibilities does a director, an officer, or a majority shareholder owe to the corporation, or to other shareholders?
What actions may be undertaken by the officers of a corporation in their capacity as such, and what actions require the approval of the directors, or of the shareholders?
How may a corporation be dissolved, and what are the consequences of dissolving it?
How may a corporation issue stock, and what rights do shareholders have with respect to the corporation?
With investments banks and other corporate finance institutions booming, and the international market place becoming more competitive with more mergers and acquisitions than ever before, the need for corporate lawyers and firms that monitor the legality of the plethora of transactions taking place, is ever increasing.
