27-05-2025
Rules forcing barristers to promote diversity dropped after backlash
Plans to force barristers to promote diversity initiatives have been scrapped after the proposed overhaul sparked a backlash from top legal figures.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) said it will not be moving forward with plans to overhaul rules requiring barristers to actively advance diversity in their jobs.
The proposals, which were first put forward last September, would have seen barristers obliged to 'act in a way that advances equality, diversity and inclusion' as one of the 10 'core duties' expected of them professionally.
Currently, the BSB's core duties simply say that barristers 'must not discriminate unlawfully against any person'.
However, the BSB was planning changes that would 'place a positive obligation' on barristers to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Barristers who failed to comply with the new rule would have risked serious sanctions from the BSB, including permanent disbarment and fines of up to £50,000.
The BSB said on Tuesday it has now abandoned its plans to amend 'Core Duty Eight' following the launch of a public consultation last September.
It comes after senior barristers and large industry groups raised concerns over the regulator's proposals.
The Bar Council, a trade body which represents over 18,000 barristers in England and Wales, had opposed the BSB's plans on the basis that the plans lacked clarity.
Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, said: 'A change to Core Duty Eight would lack the clarity needed for barristers to be able to comply.'
Some barristers had separately opposed the plans on the basis that ambiguity surrounding the interpretation of the rules left them open to abuse.
Naomi Cunningham, a barrister specialising in discrimination law, warned the proposed amendment risked being 'ruthlessly weaponised by activists to suppress dissent.'
Meanwhile, Andreas Gledhill, KC, and Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, a former justice minister, branded the planned changes as 'coercive, illiberal and dangerous', saying the BSB was effectively setting in statute 'vague, uncertain and in some cases highly subjective' value judgments that had no legal basis.
They added that they 'unequivocally' supported equal opportunity and opposed discrimination in 'all its forms'.
The BSB said it will now seek to increase diversity at the Bar using other regulatory tools, including by setting 'clear expectations for the progress that we want to see over the next five years'.
'We remain determined to see a step change in progress in encouraging a diverse legal profession,' the BSB said.
Mark Neale, director general at the BSB, said: 'The challenge here is a practical one, not an ideological one ... at root, this requires a change of culture. Such a change requires the support and active collaboration of the profession.'
The BSB's reversal comes as an array of major businesses, including some of the world's largest law firms, have overhauled their own approaches to diversity initiatives amid Donald Trump's war on DEI.
Law firms including White & Case and Freshfields both dropped their diversity targets in the US in response to the Trump administration's attacks on corporate diversity initiatives. Some law firms have effectively been banned from working for the US federal government amid the DEI backlash.
