On the face of it, the statistic that 8.1% of the UK’s lawyer population is from the country’s ethnic minorities does not look too bad: according to the 2001 census, 92% of Britain’s population is white.

But a glance at the ethnic diversity of the partnerships of the country’s biggest firms reveals that the overwhelming majority of ethnic minority solicitors in the UK are either sole practitioners, lawyers working in small firms, or in the public sector.