Why UK law firms should think twice about ditching DEI
As Donald Trump seeks to rip up the rule book on matters such as international diplomacy, trade tariffs and foreign aid, it’s easy to think that the legal sector in the UK is largely unaffected by the former The Apprentice host’s bid to change the world.
However, one area of Trump’s sledgehammer approach that has sparked an interesting debate which could affect the legal sector is his the abandonment of ‘woke’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
In his typically subtle manner Trump said last month: “My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense – and these are policies that were absolute nonsense – throughout the government and the private sector.”
He has also moved to eliminate “radical gender ideology and critical race theory [CRT]” from the nation’s schools. He has targeted LGBTQ rights making it official government policy that there are only two legal recognised sexes while seeking to ban federal funding or support for youth gender-affirming care and transgender individuals from serving in the military.
Cue a host of business across the US from JP Morgan to Pepsi immediately swinging the right wing scythe and abandoning DEI programmes completely. Now, this raises a few interesting questions like, did they just embark on a DEI strategy as lip service because it was good PR and will it damage their reputations now they are pandering to the conservative agenda?
The answer is probably yes to both. However, in the US it is easy for companies to hide behind the Trump edict and argue they had no choice but to comply, while saving the DEI dollars they were spending on their programmes. In the UK it’s not quite so easy and, I’d argue, a road that law firms should not go down for various legal PR and comms reasons.
Firstly there is positive legal PR for law firms in maintaining DEI as a matter of importance. Promoting equality is the right thing to do, ergo it is viewed as favourable to a company’s reputation. Just look at the positive response to Deloitte UK breaking from the US arm of the firm on the issue.
But it’s not just a reputation with the public that could be damaged by binning DEI, it also has serious implications from an internal communications perspective and in retaining talent. This is especially the case in law firms where many solicitors, by the very nature of their jobs, care about ethics.
Black Letter conducted research for our client Obelisk Support two years ago which looked into the importance of ethics among junior lawyers. For any law firm thinking of shelving DEI they should have a read. The research revealed that nearly three-quarters agreed or strongly agreed that they would not join an organisation whose values did not match with their own, even if they were offering more money.
An even higher proportion (86%) said they were looking to effect positive change in society through their work as a lawyer.
While there may be a cultural shift with the Trump revolution across the Atlantic that doesn’t mean that needs to be mirrored in the UK, certainly not if law firms want to maintain their reputations and hold onto their staff.
