23rd October saw the official launch of the new platform Neurodiversity in Law with the event titled Embracing Diversity.
The platform was set up by neurodiverse legal professionals and allies and is open to everyone wanting to learn more and support the group and its members’ journeys.
Like me, the group knows there are plenty of misconceptions around neurodiverse workers. The most frustrating is when our abilities and motivations are unfairly called into question due to the lack of awareness and understanding of different neurological makeups and ways in which we operate.
The platform is there so that everyone can feel comfortable to share their experiences for the benefit of neurodiverse and neurotypical legal professionals at whatever stage they are at and their allies. Its key purposes are to help improve diversity of entry and retention across the board of the industry. It is agreed that diversity of thought is key to human flourishing and the industry gains nothing from “Groupthink” where all members are the same or similar.
The event, expertly moderated by the events coordinator Susana Ferrín Pérez, was filled with a number of impressive guests and speakers.
Firstly we heard from the Chair and Vice-Chair of the platform Thomas Hood and Oliver May.
Thomas offered an explanation of neurodiversity and how the platform came to be. Following a seemingly throwaway tweet that was made with the Law Society tagged in it also, it blew up amongst the legal Twitterverse and motivated Thomas and a group of like-minded neurodiverse legal professionals and allies to come together to create a platform that supports and educates the profession and looks to strengthen the industry through further diversity of professionals.
Oliver recounted a comment that a senior barrister made in conversation that a dyslexic person (like himself) wanting to be a barrister is like a blind person wanting to be a bus driver.
Oh boy! I’ll just let the bigotry and ignorance of that comment ring out a bit …………………………………………………… ok that’s enough ringing!
The stigma and bigotry that exists in the Bar was his motivation to get involved with an organisation that can work to tackle this issue across the profession and amongst all professionals, and so he helped to get Neurodiversity in Law off the ground with the rest of the committee.
Then we heard from the guest speakers:
Chris White is the Founder of Aspiring Solicitors, the largest EDI platform for future lawyers in the UK. It focuses on 4 groups of diversity in its candidates – social mobility, BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled candidates.
Regards to neurodiversity, AS runs a program called Think Talent with Barclays Legal and leading City law firms, and 4 out of 10 candidates who have taken part in that process have gone on to secure training contracts.
Chris came from a working-class family, studied at a non-Russell Group University, was the first of his family to go to university or study law, and trained at the London office of the US firm Norton Rose Fulbright. He believes in a meritocracy in that candidates of AS don’t get in just because they are diverse; they get in because they are highly capable candidates who just happen to be diverse.
What is interesting is that from when AS started, over 20% of candidates disclosed to them that they have a disability, compared to 4% of candidates who disclose to law firms directly. So clearly AS is doing something right in the acceptance of diverse individuals and working with them to unleash their talent for the benefit of themselves and the profession as a whole.
You can tell exactly how much a platform like this means to Chris as he spoke on the event from his car! He probably stepped out of a client meeting to do so as well, which I can’t imagine someone as important as him doing something like that if he wasn’t interested or wanted to invest in the platform and the work that will be done!
Margherita Cornaglia is a Barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London and the Founder of Themis, the Intersectional Women Barristers’ Alliance. It is a community of women barristers, pupils, and students promoting diversity and inclusion at the Bar in the UK.
Whilst the group is still fairly young and still transforming ideas into actions, the plan is for the platform to be an easily accessible and helpful resource in moving forward with individual drives for equality, diversity and inclusion.
Themis is getting a blog off the ground in the hopes that it will turn into an opportunity to research, engage with and address existing issues with regards to equality through forming dedicated working groups with links to law reform initiatives.
Margherita believes that diversity in law is important because we as a profession are representing society today. The Bar is still mainly white, male and neurotypical, which is nowhere near the clients we represent. It is therefore essential that there are people in the profession who understand these differences and what they mean, and that the profession engages directly with society it reflects.
Jonathan Andrews is an Associate at Reed Smith LLP in London working in the Entertainment and Media team. He also sits on the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Law Society and is a member of many other EDI groups with a national and international outreach. He is an out autistic solicitor and actively champions neurodivergent people in law at all stages in their career.
In his slot, he spoke about a few things that resonated with me.
Neurodiversity is more than just grades; it is about being accepted. For me, as someone with rather disappointing A level and undergrad degree grades, and wanting to see a good workplace culture of camaraderie, collaboration and inclusion in my next role, this spoke volumes to me. I’ve often been asked why my now-historic grades were so disappointing and I always find myself explaining that it is in part to my difficulty in processing information and in part not being able to find the best way of studying that worked well for me at that time.
Further, “energy spent on masking can be put towards work if they are accepted for who they are and encouraged to be open about who they are”. Yes, yes, yes!! Masking is so exhausting physically and emotionally, whether it is voluntary or not. It comes as a result of the environment and the people you are around that are not fully understanding or accepting of who you are. Being someone you are not helps no one – not you, not your colleagues, not your employer, no one!
Michael Etienne is a Barrister at No.5 Chambers in London and sits on the committee of the platform Bridging the Bar as Co-Director of the Disability into the Bar programme. He is also a member of the platform Black Men in Law, which has recently come together with The Law Collective, Urban Lawyers and Alexandra Wilson, who upsettingly was mistaken for a defendant 3 times instead of a Barrister because of her race, to launch One Case At A Time, a fund to facilitate funding of legal costs for cases of injustice with a specific focus on Black people in the UK.
He was also open about the fact that he has cerebral palsy which means he has to make changes in how he navigates practice. He doesn’t talk about it much, which is reflective of a conversation in the profession that hasn’t been had very much.
When asked if a candidate should declare on applications that they are neurodiverse, Michael’s response was a resounding yes! That’s an answer I can get on board with because if you are not open about what your needs are, alongside your strengths, then you’ll only make things harder for yourself. By disclosing fully, you’re making absolutely clear your strengths, challenges, and how your employer/organisation can support you. Put it this way – if you were invited to interview or made an offer of employment, you are clearly good enough and so by law the employer must support you in your role with whatever reasonable adjustments can be put in place for you.
I am so excited to see where this platform goes with the partnership of these amazing organisations and practitioners. We know there has been incredible work done to increase diversity of gender, race, socio-economic class and visible disability in the profession, so imagine what we could see with the same amount of energy channelled into promoting neurodiversity. For the profession, it can make use of so many different perspectives and ways of working and be able to grow even more and learn even more with and from more and more neurodiverse lawyers.
If you want to follow, support or get involved, be sure to visit the website and the social media pages below:
Be safe and be well! :)
P
Credit: cover image photo by Neurodiversity in Law
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