Inclusion, diversity and wellbeing

Inclusion, diversity and wellbeing

We work hard to create a fair, inclusive and supportive environment, where all of our barristers and employees feel able to be themselves.

We recognise that there is a serious lack of diversity in our profession and that we, as a chambers, have a long way to go to improve our gender balance, and ethnic and social diversity. We are committed to change and believe it is essential to the continuing success of our business. Only by building a truly diverse chambers can we offer the broad range of perspectives that will allow us to best support our clients.

We think that to provide the best possible advice and service to our clients, our barristers and employees need to be passionate about what they do, happy in their roles, and supported in developing their expertise and wellbeing.

We are committed to:

  • Building an outstanding team, recruited from a diverse pool of talent
  • Creating an inclusive workplace, where people feel able to be themselves and speak openly
  • Providing training and opportunities that help our people fulfil their potential and provide the best possible service to clients
  • Supporting the wellbeing and resilience of our people
  • Reporting on our progress.

We have policies supporting these objectives. In particular, we provide equality of opportunity in chambers and throughout our recruitment processes, and will not tolerate discrimination on grounds of gender, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, religion, age, disability, or political beliefs – or any other irrelevant grounds.

But values alone are not enough. Change needs to be driven by strategy. We have therefore undertaken to set and report on specific goals annually to ensure we make progress towards achieving our vision.

Recent initiatives include:

  • implementing new parental leave policies for barristers and employees
  • increasing the amount of training we offer in chambers, and introduce specific training supporting inclusion and wellbeing
  • ensuring that all our barristers and employees have access to an employee assistance programme
  • improving the gender balance of our media spokespeople and seminar panels
  • promoting diversity and inclusion at the chancery bar by developing our first of its kind barrister experience programme, inspiring and supporting young people from backgrounds that are under-represented at the bar
  • ensuring that our marketing, recruitment materials and internal policies are LGBT+ inclusive
  • entering the Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index.

We welcome feedback on our approach to inclusion, development and wellbeing, and actively seek to collaborate with our clients, other barristers’ chambers, charities and other organisations to refine our approach and maximise the impact we can make.

Please contact Isabel Bertram to start a conversation about working together, or to share your views.

Please click here to view the anti-racism statement for Radcliffe Chambers’ barristers and staff members.

Please click here to view the diversity data for Radcliffe Chambers’ barristers and staff members.

Please click here to read our reasonable adjustments policy.