At the LSB we have started qualitative research into legal professionals’ lived experiences of counter-inclusive practices. This is with the aim of informing future LSB research and policy activity on equality, diversity and inclusion. One of our statutory regulatory objectives is to encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession. This research will help us to consider how to foster a more welcoming and inclusive profession.
If you have recently faced counter-inclusive practices, making it harder to get in or get on in your career as a legal professional, we want to hear from you, through an online interview or online focus group. We want to share research findings with other professionals, the regulators and wider stakeholders to engage the sector with the barriers affecting diversity and inclusion, and to inform how regulation can best address them.
We are working with an independent market research company, Solutions Strategy Research Facilitation Ltd (Solutions Research Ltd), to deliver this project. Solutions Research Ltd will be responsible for the recruitment of participants, conducting the research, analysing and reporting back to us on the findings. The project is being carried out in line with the Market Research Society Code of Conduct and GDPR.
The research will consist of small online focus groups each lasting 1.5 hours or online individual interviews each lasting 1 hour and will take place in September. Anyone who participates in the focus groups or individual interviews will be given £80 as a thank you for their time and contribution. The sign up form is available here: https://forms.office.com/r/hL9WPhzLpd and more detail is below.
How do I get involved?
Solutions Research Ltd are working with their recruitment partner Leftfield Associates Ltd to find people who would like to take part in the research. Participation is entirely voluntary, and you can withdraw at any point in the process.
If you are interested in taking part or finding out more, please register your interest using the form via this link: https://forms.office.com/r/hL9WPhzLpd. This form will ask some questions about you including about your ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion and health, and then Solutions Research Ltd will invite a mix of people to take part to ensure the research encompasses a range of backgrounds and experiences. This means that not everyone who expresses interest will be interviewed, but an online survey will be available for anyone else who wishes to share their experiences for the purposes of the research.
How will the research be used?
A report will be prepared by Solutions Research Ltd, identifying themes and patterns in experiences. This report will include pseudonymised examples of counter-inclusive practices with pseudonymised participant quotes. If you are comfortable doing so, we could share your examples through audio or video clips, however you do not have to consent to us using such clips to participate in the research.
We will use the research report to inform our ongoing EDI work and share the findings publicly to engage the legal profession, regulators and broader public in this topic. This will include sharing findings at the reshaping legal services conference on the 13 October 2022: the theme of which is a diverse public deserves a strong, ethical and diverse profession. The LSB will publicly share the report, audio and video clips, or elements of, on the LSB website and social media (such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter).
How will my personal data be used?
The safety and security of your personal data is important to us, and we will be using informed consent as the lawful basis for processing and sharing your data. Any personal data you share with Solutions Research Ltd, and their research recruitment partner Leftfield Associates will be processed as part of the research. This will be stored securely and shared only with appropriate consents in place, in line with GDPR. Solutions Research Ltd will not share the identities of anyone who participates in the research without their consent and will gain their sign off for the use of pseudonymised quotes in the main research report or any publicly shared output, and for any audio or video clips before sharing them.