Black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors are disproportionately over-represented in the regulatory process but there is no evidence of direct discrimination, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has concluded.
The SRA this week issued its response to Professor Gus John’s Independent Comparative Case Review report, published in March. Broadly, the SRA has agreed with Prof John’s findings.
Prof John was appointed to carry out the review, after the Society of Black lawyers accused the SRA of institutional racism.
SRA Chief Executive Paul Philip says: “Professor John found no evidence of direct discrimination, but we are concerned about his findings of continuing disproportionality in regulatory outcomes for BME lawyers. We are committed to undertaking the work necessary to identify the underlying causes of that disproportionality and, where it falls within our remit, to address those causes.”
