Diversity and the legal profession: A UK perspective

Abstract

The extent to which legal professions around the world facilitate and promote the careers of a diverse range of qualified candidates has been a focus for research and debate throughout the 21 ^st century. This essay discusses a significant contribution to this field, Robert Nelson, et. al.’s The Making of Lawyers’ Careers: Inequality and Opportunity in the American Legal Profession , a comprehensive study of lawyers’ careers in the United States that draws on extensive quantitative and qualitative data. The essay considers the book’s findings in the context of the exponential rate of change in legal professions worldwide change which, however, has been constrained by the endurance of traditional features of professionalism, including its classed, gendered, and raced character. In line with the Bourdieusian stance taken by the book’s authors, the essay reflects on the continuing influence of social categories and their interaction both with each other and with institutional and wider socio-economic factors in a complex and many-layered process.