The president of the Law Society has called on North East employers to make their workforces more diverse, and championed forging a law career in the region.
On a visit to Newcastle, I.Stephanie Boyce, the first person of colour to become president of the Law Society and only the sixth woman to do so, spoke to in-house lawyers and called on them to encourage the next generation of law professionals in the region.
Ms Boyce said not only did she want to see more graduates and apprentices building careers in the North East after qualifying, but that greater diversity should also be promoted.
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Speaking to Business Live, she said: "The Law Society is committed to building a more diverse profession and it's one of my presidential priorities to ensure that we are diverse. There are a number of programmes we put in place to make that happen, but I'm acutely aware the profession - at its junior end - is diverse but we're not seeing that level of diversity permeate into the senior part of the profession. We want to highlight that and speak more about it.
"Diversity brings a richness to the table. It's diversity of thought and of experience, but my caveat is that it's not just enough to bring diversity into the room, one must ensure that you give the individuals a voice and allow them to be heard.
"Research that we did in 2019 shows that just 3.7% of solicitors based in the North East identified as either black, Asian or ethnic minority - and that's against a contrast of 17.5% in the whole of England and Wales."
She added: "The legal profession has a liking for recruiting from certain universities. I gave a speech to a London law firm and someone put their hand up and said: 'We've been looking in the wrong places, we're missing out on talent'. It's about encouraging employers to expand their reach, to look at where they're advertising, look at the wording in their adverts and look at their web pages - can your potential employees see representations of themselves?"
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Ms Boyce's speech, entitled 'Dare to Dream', set out her own experiences as someone who came from a single parent household and a low socio-economic background to reach her current position "against all the odds".
She pointed at her career trajectory, having got a 2:2 degree from a non-Russell Group university before going on to study a Masters and said it was evidence that "people bloom academically at different times" - a factor she said employers should consider.
The underrepresentation of people from different backgrounds could pose a challenge to the North East legal industry as it needs role models to encourage recruitment.
Ms Boyce said: "When I was vying to become office holder I promised the Law Society that I would be visible and that I'd take it to places it's never been. I'm wedded to the idea that if people can see it, they can achieve it. By seeing someone that looks like them, sounds like them gives them confidence they can rise to the top of their profession.
"The fact that I - a person of colour from a single person household and low socio-economic background - has risen to the position I'm in is testament to the dynamism of the law profession."
Speaking about competition the sector faces for young talent, Ms Boyce said: "The younger generation coming into the profession want different things. When I do initiation ceremonies I hear from lots of people working in start-up companies, cyber security and so forth. It's important that the profession adapts. Of course there will be competition from other professions because the grounding one gets in law is transferrable and it stands you in good stead."