Reimagining the Law 16 June 2020

1. Access to the legal profession

Covid-19 is disrupting educational progression and will increase the attainment gap for students in disadvantaged situations. Inclusion initiatives aimed at increasing access to the profession should be remodelled, using new tools to reach out virtually to provide work experience, mentoring and support.
Christine O'Neill

2. Ethnic Diversity at Board level

Given the continued lack of progress in improving ethnic diversity on Boards, is it not time to impose firmer requirements on companies and organisations to require Boards to better reflect the communities in which they operate, whether through a Code of Best Practice or, if that is not adequate, legislation.
Keith Ruddock

3. To represent, the profession needs to be representative

The legal profession should reflect the diversity of the population. Our job is to represent people and we should also be representative. In the UK black people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system but they are significantly underrepresented in the legal profession. We need to fix both of these issues.
Alexandra Wilson

4. We should abandon precedent...

...at least in areas of significant inequality. Access to justice is typically seen as a problem solved by better dispute resolution or more legal aid. Rule complexity is a large part of the problem. Precedent does not aid decision making to the extent lawyers think it does. We need to think radically about simplification in key areas of law.
Professor Richard Moorhead

5. Support not stigma

Much has been said about the level of stress and mental ill-health amongst lawyers. Why don't we make mental health awareness a compulsory topic in legal education, create a forum for practitioners to share their experiences of mental ill health and recovery, and work to create a culture of support, not stigma, at all levels of our profession?
Andrew Wells