June 2022: Edwards Gibson Director quoted in the Legal Business Diversity & Inclusion article

Director, Scott Gibson, has been quoted in Legal Business’ article published on 28th June 2022 titled ‘The ESG report – Diversity and inclusion: A false start?’ (subscription required).

The article explores opinions from across the legal industry to assess representation in the legal market. The article aims to identify the reasons behind the diversity and inclusion figures found in the Legal Business survey, discussing various factors including the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, lateral hiring and client needs.

When asked about the importance of D&I considerations in legal recruitment, Scott observed: “Today diversity still makes (almost) no difference to the lateral hiring of transactional lawyers, where the size of a partner’s book of business continues to trump all. However, in areas where skillset rather than following dominates – for example, corporate tax or financial services regulatory – law firms do appear to be making genuine efforts to hire diverse candidates.”

The author, Charles Avery, concludes: “The expectations different communities have of their members can vary, and so it is inevitable that people from some groups will find the demands of a legal career easier to accommodate than others. The result is that, while firms continue to pay lip service to lawyer wellbeing, claims of diverse people being able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work are destined to ring hollow.”