The chair of the City of London Law Society has hit back at allegations that efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the capital’s business centre ‘have failed because they were never meant to work’.
Dr Louise Ashley, an associate professor at Queen Mary University London and a prominent equity, diversity and inclusion adviser, claims City firms are engaged in ‘reputation laundering’. Writing for The Conversation website last month, Ashley said she began her research on the subject a decade ago while working for a City law firm. Ashley was advised by a style consultant to the firm to wear more make-up and skirt-suits to ‘look more professional’.
Ashley wrote: ‘I believe that City firms’ efforts to become more diverse and inclusive, and to deliver more equal representation at the top, have not worked because they were never meant to. Instead, they are a form of “reputation laundering”, offering only the illusion of change in order to protect [existing] privileges and rewards.’
Last year Ashley published a book, Highly Discriminating – Why the City isn’t fair and Diversity doesn’t work, based on interviews with more than 400 City leaders and workers. She has led teams appointed by the government’s Social Mobility Commission to understand non-educational barriers to the elite professions, including law.
Writing on his LinkedIn page, CLLC chair Colin Passmore, formerly senior partner and now a partner at Simmons & Simmons, said he was ‘surprised and more than a little disappointed’ by Ashley’s comments. He urged Ashley to ‘reflect on her conclusions and perhaps celebrate the fact that some significant and genuine initiatives are well under way.
‘I could not disagree more [with Ashley],’ said Passmore. ‘If I look at the experiences of my own firm – and I know we are not alone in this as I look across the CLLS membership – we have seen good improvement in gender diversity at partnership level over the past six years. While the changes here and across all forms of diversity never happen fast enough, this is not because these efforts are not meant to work. To the contrary, senior management teams have been the catalysts for ensuring diversity programmes receive due recognition.’
He adds: ‘That is also why so many firms are getting behind other, broader initiatives: increasing numbers of firms have begun to introduce solicitor apprenticeship schemes. These are meant to work – just look at the enthusiasm and drive with which our own CLLS Training Committee is taking forward the City Century project.’
Passmore concluded: ‘I am the first to accept that change does not happen fast enough, but to say we are engaged in reputation laundering does us a considerable injustice.’
