We have produced information, guides and advice to help you, our members, and your organisations promote equality and diversity and eliminate the gender pay gap. These include an Equal Pay Toolkit, our Parents in the Profession guides, the Equality Standards, and a Menopause Support Resource.
There is also the opportunity to work in partnership with us in this area. To discuss this further please contact Charlotta Cedeqvist, Head of Business Development.
To help develop the next generation of female leaders, our access network aims to put women solicitors and trainees in touch with senior women in the profession for guidance and advice.
Our comprehensive menopause support guide, produced in partnership with Peppy, is designed to help individuals and firms access the support they need, with information, advice and further resources to explore.
The Profile of the Profession is major study of those working in Scotland’s legal sector. It was last conducted in May 2018, with more than 2,700 Scottish solicitors and accredited paralegals taking part.
Building a more inclusive profession
Find out more about our key our priorities and projects to improve equality and diversity within the legal profession for the five years to 2023.
Equality and diversity guides
Supporting our members to comply with their legal duties and to excel as employers and service providers.
Equality and diversity research
Take a look at our key research which looks at the whole legal sector, as well as specific groups and issues.
One of the biggest issues in this area currently is the gender pay gap. While our profession is not unique in facing the challenge of a gender pay gap, we want to continue having open and positive discussion about gender equality and what we can all do.
Take a look at the questions below and get involved in the conversation. Discuss them with colleagues and friends, tell us your views by email, or join the conversation in our social media groups using #LetsTalkProgression
- What benefits does diversity offer our profession?
- What can we do to promote thinking about gender equality?
- What can you do to promote diversity and challenge the gender pay gap?
- How can we ensure diversity at senior levels across the profession?
- Does your social or ethnic background affect your career options?
- What should we do to close the pay gap?
- How can you progress your career and have a family?
- Why do so many women in their 30s leave the profession?
- Why do so few men take up shared parental leave?
- Should we encourage more men to study law?
The Equality Standards, guides and other information are supplemented by regular blogs from experts and events covering key issues.
Easter: Bringing hope in troubled times
For Easter, Anthony Horan, Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, considers the meaning of this important Christian festival and the hope it offers as we begin to emerge from lockdown.
International Women's Day 2021: What I've learned
Elaine MacGlone, our Equality & Diversity Manager and a solicitor, reflects on what she's learned from our series of blogs celebrating IWD 2021 and how even the smallest changes can make a difference.
International Women's Day 2021: Inequality is everyone's issue
Professor Gillian Black, Chair of Scots Private Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School and Commissioner at the Scottish Law Commission, examines why ensuring women enter the profession has not been enough to create real change and lays down a challenge to male colleagues and friends.
International Women's Day 2021: My law is one that champions women
Claire Hawthorne, a trainee solicitor at Burness Paull LLP, discusses why her fears of entering a 'male-dominated' profession proved unfounded and the inspiring changes she has witnessed.
International Women's Day 2021: Goodbye Queen Bee
Charlotte Edgar, an associate at CMS and the New Lawyers Representative on our Council, argues it's time to ditch the Queen Bee Syndrome narrative in favour of collaboration and support, so that all women can benefit from the successes of each other.
International Women’s Day 2021: Choose to challenge and change
Naeema Sajid, solicitor, co-founder of SEMLA, and member of the Family Law Sub Committee, reflects on the enduring importance of International Women's Day, why gender equality remains an issue in the legal profession, and the promise she makes to her granddaughter.
LGBT+ History Month: My trans journey
To mark the conclusion of LGBT+ History Month 2021, Amanda Millar, current President of the Law Society of Scotland, and the first openly LGBT+ person to hold the role, reflects on her own trans awareness journey.
Chinese New Year: Eat For Hope
As Lunar New Year celebrations kick off across many Asian cultures on 12 February this year, Ling Deng, a solicitor at Thorntons Law LLP, reflects on what the Chinese New Year means to her, with its rituals, symbolism and message of hope for the coming year, after a tough 12 months.
LGBT History Month: Looking back, looking forward
Rob Marrs, Head of Education at the Law Society of Scotland, reflects on the progress made towards equality and inclusion in the legal profession, and the work still to be done.
Advent: Glimmers of light in the season of waiting
This year's Christmas may have been overtaken by the coronavirus pandemic, but there is still light to be found in the darkness of these difficult times, says, Mary Macleod, Solicitor of the Church of the Church of Scotland Law Department.
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As the professional body for solicitors in Scotland, we have responsibilities to the profession, to the public, and as an employer.
To represent and protect these diverse groups, we recognise the need to:
- value the contribution from all who make up the population of Scotland
- take strength from the widest experience, knowledge and understanding it can access - both within and outwith our membership
- go beyond legal compliance by integrating diversity into all that we do
- promote the core values of diversity to the profession as a whole
We, alongside the legal profession, have various responsibilities in relation to equality and diversity covered by legislation and statutory codes.
For example:
- as employers
- as a regulator of the profession
- as providers of 'goods and services' (to the public).
We also have additional responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 as a:
- 'public authority' in respect of our public functions
- service provider to the profession
- trade (membership) organisation
- qualifications body
You can view our key research in this area over the last 10 years, some looking at the whole sector and collecting data to let us assess change, and others looking at specific groups, such as minority ethnic solicitors, or specific issues, like bullying.
