In 1999, a survey carried out by the Law Society found that female and ethnic minority candidates were still considerably less likely to win training contracts at the larger City commercial firms than their white male counterparts. While no-one was suggesting that the firms were employing direct discrimination in their recruitment practices, the evidence did suggest that indirect discrimination against all students from poorer socio-economic backgrounds was still an issue.
The Law Society was not impressed. “Firms must ensure that their employment procedures avoid direct or indirect discrimination,” said Robert Sayer, then the society’s president, on the survey’s release. “There is a real bottom-line cost to poor recruitment practice. If a firm is not recruiting from the largest possible pool of talent, it will miss out on the best new solicitors.”
