We are committed to providing a working environment in which all members of Chambers, pupils, mini-pupils, staff, clients and the public are treated with dignity, respect and fairness, in which everyone is treated equally and can flourish, and which is conducive to the professional growth of our members, pupils, mini-pupils and staff and to the promotion of equality of opportunity.
It is in our, and our clients’, interests that our members and staff build successful and fulfilling careers. We fully support practice development, with flexibility in working practices, assistance with leave or career breaks, whether for parental or other reasons, help at all stages, and a working atmosphere that encourages motivation and wellbeing.
We make no distinctions of social, educational or economic background or circumstances. We will never allow discrimination on grounds of race, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, disability, age or religion or belief; nor will we allow harassment, victimisation, bullying or an unsafe working environment. Any such conduct would be anathema to our principles of fairness. It would also be unlawful.
We are proud of our standards, our friendliness and sense of community, and of the services that we provide. We are committed to promoting and advancing equality and diversity.
We are proud signatories to the Women in Law Pledge created by the Bar Council of England and Wales, The Law Society, and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx). We are committed to the progress of equality, elimination of sex discrimination and pledge to make positive change for the legal profession.
See our Women In Law targets.
We have members of Chambers that sit on the Bar Council Pro Bono and Social Responsibility Committee and the Chancery Bar Association’s Equality and Diversity Sub-Committee.
Members of Chambers also give their time as volunteers to support many equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, including:
- The Middle Temple Access to the Bar Scheme: Supporting applications to the Bar by those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- The International Lawyers for Africa Secondment Programme: Hosting secondees in Chambers each year.
- The Technology and Construction Bar Association’s BAME Network: Providing mock interviews and reviews of CVs for prospective pupillage applicants.
- Leducate: Promoting an understanding of everyday legal rights among secondary school students.
- The Lincoln’s Inn Mentoring Scheme.
- The Bridging the Bar Mentoring Scheme and Mini Pupillage Programme: Promoting equality of access to opportunities in the legal profession across all underrepresented groups.
- The Bar Placement Scheme: A scheme organised by the Bar Council working with Pathways to Law and the Social Mobility Foundation to provide the opportunity for students in years 12 and 13 to explore the career of a barrister by shadowing a barrister in chambers and court.
- 10,000 Black Interns Project: A programme designed to support Black students and graduates and address under-representation of Black talent across various sectors.
- The Inner Temple Schools Outreach Programme.
- Middle Temple Vis Moot Team: Providing support and coaching for the mooting teams.
- Pegasus Access and Support Scheme (PASS) run by the Inner Temple.
- The Combar Social Mobility Mentoring Scheme.
- The Social Mobility Foundation mentoring scheme.
- Bringing [Dis]Ability to the Bar.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Code
Diversity data
Chambers publishes diversity data in accordance with rC110 of the BSB Handbook.
Women in Law Pledge
The Women in Law Pledge is a joint initiative by the Bar Council, Law Society and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx) to help tackle the issue of gender equality in the legal profession.
4 Stone Buildings’ Targets & Action Plan
Chambers intends to meet the following targets:
- Target 1: to continue monitoring allocation of work opportunities and working to principles of fair allocation and to monitor income to ensure fair distribution of work.
- Target 2: to continue to support women to ensure parity of retention rates between women and men in Chambers, including by ensuring the ED&I Code continues to include effective parental leave and flexible working policies, and by ensuring the continuation of supportive relationships in Chambers.
- Target 3: to develop and maintain the mentoring schemes in Chambers to ensure support is provided to women members in their applications for silk, judicial position or other appointments, including panel appointments, and to continue to promote the use of practice development meetings.
- Target 4: to continue to increase the number and proportion of women members of Chambers. As at August 2022, 22.5% of the members of Chambers are women (9 out of 40 members). Of the 10 most junior members of Chambers, 40% are women.
- Target 5: to increase the number of women clerks in Chambers. As at August 2022, Chambers has no women clerks (out of 6 clerks).
- Target 6: to continue participation by women in marketing and speaking opportunities and to continue to ensure that marketing activities offered by Chambers take into consideration location and timing to ensure the continued participation of women barristers and women professional clients.
- Target 7: to ensure that women are properly represented on all committees in Chambers. As at August 2022 the total proportion of women on all of Chambers’ committees is 32.6%. While women are well represented on most of Chambers’ committees, the proportion of women for some committees is less than the proportion of women members in Chambers.
- Target 8: to review and maintain a policy for menopause included in the ED&I Code, to ensure support and adjustments for women in Chambers in the period before, during and after the menopause.
Nicola Timmins and Emma Horner are the members of Chambers accountable for gender diversity and inclusion. Chambers’ ED&I Committee will be monitoring the targets and will report to the Bar Council annually