This is Serle Court’s updated reply to the final call to arms in the Bar Standard’s Board’s Anti-Racist Statement: to produce and publish an anti-racist statement.
The members and staff at Serle Court abhor racism, however it manifests itself. We see it as rotten in principle, and culturally toxic and corrosive. We recognise the damaging impact it has on its victims and have no tolerance for racism within Chambers. As a relatively small but influential organisation, we recognise our responsibility to play our part in the eradication of systemic racism from our corner of society.
To this end, our Equality and Diversity Committee sits at the heart of Chambers’ life, vigorously championed by our Head of Chambers, Elizabeth Jones KC and our Chambers Director, Kathryn Purkis. Our governing constitution enshrines:
- non-discrimination in all we do;
- adherence to the equality, diversity and inclusion provisions of the Code of Conduct; and
- compliance with all Chambers’ policies which are cascaded from such provisions (including our equality and diversity, recruitment and fair allocation of work policies) over which our EDI Committee and the Chambers Director maintain close oversight. Those policies refer to the provision of ongoing training. In this regard, the Bar Council’s race awareness training programme was rolled out for all members and staff in response to the BSB’s third call to arms in 2023 and this training has been refreshed this year, 2026.
Minority ethnic groups are badly underrepresented at the Chancery Commercial bar. We deeply regret that, and in that respect want to change outcomes. Our action steps include the following:
- We work with workplace psychologists to guide and audit our recruitment processes and amend them to yield greater diversity throughout our recruitment cycle
- We have 3 mini-pupillages reserved for members of underrepresented groups (specifically referencing those who are Black or of mixed Black heritage but including all racial groups that are underrepresented), with a guaranteed first round pupillage interview: this is one of our positive action measures, responding to the BSB’s second call to arms.
- We are in favour of lawful positive action. We expect to formulate and implement other such measures when occasion suggests.
- We make particular efforts to support with money and with time the law societies of universities whose own outreach is strong.
- We participate in a variety of mentoring schemes for underrepresented groups, including the PASS scheme and the 10,000 Black Interns scheme. These initiatives dovetail with our CSR commitments to encouraging social mobility in the professions: see further here.
Until that underrepresentation changes, there is no room for complacency. Chambers monitors a range of demographics in the membership and staff and in 2023 we set ourselves the target of reflecting the UK’s racial demographic in our membership and staff by 2032 and sooner if we could. There has been palpable progress in the statistics for membership already, and we have attained the target as regards staff.
