St Philips is proud to become a signatory to the Women in Law Pledge.
What is the Women in Law Pledge?
The Women in Law Pledge is a joint initiative between The Bar Council, The Law Society and Chartered Institute of Legal Executives aimed at tackling the issue of gender equality within the legal profession.
Chambers’ Action Plan
Through the signing of the pledge and the creation of a measurable action plan to actively support women within Chambers, we are making our targets public to be accountable for our actions.
As Chambers we have committed to:
- Appoint named members of our Chambers Administration Committee who are accountable for gender diversity and inclusion.
- Review and make any necessary improvements to the current procedures for the quarterly monitoring of the allocation of work and income levels of members of chambers, to ensure Chambers has the requisite information upon which to base the implementation of this strategy.
- Develop and implement an improved system for barrister practice reviews, with the aim of specifically addressing long term career goals.
- Develop and deliver annual training for clerks on the updated practice review system and on delivering equality for all members of chambers.
- Undertake an evaluative study of the use of the policies and practices within Chambers that are designed to assist women develop their practices, including taking views on improvements they would like to see in those practices/policies.
- Develop and implement an action plan to work towards achieving gender proportionality in our senior management and leadership teams, with the aim of increasing the number of women in leadership roles in St Philips within 12 months.
- Review existing mentoring arrangements within Chambers with a view to ensuring that they assist directly in working towards the aims of the Pledge and equality in general.
- Provide an annual training session on E&D to ensure members of our Chambers Administration Committee are aware of their E&D responsibilities and duties under the Bar Code of Conduct.
- Make public our pledge and share our action plan.
On signing the pledge, Chambers Director Joe Wilson commented:
“The signing of the Women in Law pledge has provided us with a focussed impetus to build explicit goals and be responsible for their delivery. Our over-arching aim is to make St Philips the go-to Chambers for ambitious women looking to maximise their potential, not only of their career at the Bar, but also to be central in top-level decision making concerning the ongoing evolution of Chambers itself.”
