Doing diversity in the legal profession in England and Wales: why do disabled people continue to be unexpected?
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Author | DEBORAH FOSTER,NATASHA HIRST |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12382 |
DOI: ./j ols.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Doing diversity in the legal profession in
England and Wales: why do disabled people
continue to be unexpected?
DEBORAH FOSTER NATASHA HIRST
Cardiff Business School, Cardiff
University, Aberconway Building, Colum
Drive, Cardiff, CF EU, Wales
Correspondence
Deborah Foster,Cardiff Business School,
Cardiff University,Aberconway Building,
Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF EU, Wales
Email: FosterD@cardiff.ac.uk
Funding information
Disability Research on Independent
Living and Learning
Abstract
A call for socio-legal scholars to interrogate the rela-
tionship between law, disablement, ableism, and justice
was recently made in this journal. Using research co-
produced with disabled people in the legal profession in
England and Wales, this article responds by asking why,
in a profession that has made a significant investment in
widening access and diversity, do disabled people con-
tinue to be unexpected? The apparent absence of disabled
people in the profession belies a complex reality.Identity
concealment is widespread and maintained by genuine
fears of career disadvantage. The effect of this is that
disabled legal professionals are unable to access their
legal rights to reasonable adjustments. Findings sug-
gesting that status, success, and economic power offer
little protection from ill treatment exposesthe contradic-
tory position that disabled people occupy in a profession
that has increasingly favoured ‘business case’ over social
justice diversity discourses.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited.
© The Authors. Journalof Law and Society published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Cardiff University (CU).
J. Law Soc. ;:–. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jols 447
448 J L S
1 INTRODUCTION
A recent article published in this journal by Lawson called for the strengthening of disability law
as an academic discipline.In so doing, it urged socio-legal scholars to interrogate the relation-
ship between ‘law and disablement, to challenge ableism, and to take action to ensure that the
law and justice systems are inclusive of disabled people’.This contribution responds to that call
by drawing on data from a unique study of the career experiences of disabled people in the legal
profession in England and Wales. Co-produced with disabled legal professionals and their orga-
nizations, the research was funded by a consortium of United Kingdom (UK) disabled people’s
organizations (DPOs). The findings provide detailed insights into disabled people’s work expe-
riences in the legal profession and highlight barriers that need to be addressed if ableism is to
be both understood and challenged to enable disabled peopleto fully participate in systems of
justice.
The original aim of this research was to address a significant gap in the academic literature,
which says little about the career experiences of disabled people in professional work generally.
The legal profession was chosen as the site of investigation for three reasons. First, the number of
widening diversity and inclusion initiatives in the UK legal sector has increased in recent years,
but disabled people continue to remain (visibly) under-represented. Second, investigations of the
legal sector provide an opportunity to evaluate whether employers and organizations charged
with upholding the law acknowledge the responsibilities placed upon them by anti-discrimination
legislation. Third, it might reasonably be assumed that a disabled person in the legal profession
would be more likely to be aware of their rights under the UK Equality Act than the average
disabled person.
Criticisms of enduring elitism in the legal profession offer one explanation for the contemporary
proliferation of diversity initiatives in this sector. These criticisms have also fuelled government
concerns that such perceptions might undermine public confidence in the fair operation of the
law and have prompted initiatives aimed at increasing diverserepresentation in, for example, the
judiciary.Proponents of social justice arguments for improving diversity argue that the under-
representation of some groups has historic and systemic roots that requireintervention, including
Lawson argues that the terms ‘Disability Law’ and ‘Disability Legal Studies’ can in many waysbe used interchangeably,
though the former can denote an academic discipline, with the latter referring to the more fluid pool of scholarship in
which it sits: A. Lawson, ‘Disability Law as an Academic Discipline: Towards Cohesion and Mainstreaming?’ () J.
of Law and Society .
Id., pp. –.
The term ‘disabled people’ is used because it is the preferred terminology of the UK disability rights movement. This
recognizes that people have ascribed impairments (whether physical, sensory, cognitive, or neurological) but that the
oppression, exclusion, and discrimination that they experience is not an inevitable consequence of their impairment but
of barriers in society. Fordetailed discussion, see id., pp. –.
An example of this can be found in the work of the group JUSTICE, an all-party law reform and human rights organi-
zation. It published a report in , Increasing Judicial Diversity, that explored the structural barriers faced by women,
those from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds
in reaching the bench: JUSTICE, Increasing Judicial Diversity (), at <https://files.justice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/
///JUSTICE-Increasing-judicial-diversity-report--web.pdf >. An update published in assessed
progress and identified areas of remaining concern. The latter report, unlike its predecessor, made some limited
reference to the under-representation of disabled people: JUSTICE, Increasing Judicial Diversity: An Update () –,
at <https://files.justice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads////Judicial-Diversity-Update- Report.pdf>.
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
