Race and the Legal Profession: Where Are We Today and When Did the Journey Begin?

Date:: Wednesday 2nd December 2020
Time:: 10am-3pm

Judith Bourne, Programme Director for Law at St Mary’s University, in collaboration with The Inner Temple, will be discussing important topics surrounding Race and the Legal Profession.

This exciting event will be the first of an annual round table series examining race equality within the legal profession.

Speakers

10-10.30am: Chair and plenary speaker, Sibghatullah Kadri QC: The State of the Bar with Regards to Race Relations in the Early 1970s and the Founding of the Society of Afro-Asian and Caribbean Lawyers Which Later Became the Society of Black Lawyers.
10.30-10.50am: Professor Leslie Thomas QC (Barrister, Garden Court Chambers): Experiences of Working at the Modern Bar, Practice and the State of Race Relations at the Bar Today.
10.50-11.10am: Bibi Badejo (Barrister, 4 Brick Court) will present a picture of her work in chambers as a black woman working at the Bar tracking her own career.
11.10-11.30am: Professor Iyiola Solanke (University of Leeds) on her experiences of working as a legal academic.
11.30am-12pm: Questions and platform to share ideas and experiences.
1-1.10pm: Judith Bourne (St. Mary’s University) will outline the project and intended outputs.
1.10-1.30pm: Caroline Derry (OU) and Judith Bourne: Lessons Learned from Researching First Women Lawyers.
1.30-1.50pm: Alex May (ODNB): The Importance of Biography
1.50-2.10pm: Eduardo Reyes (Editor, Law Society Gazette): The Importance of Publishing History.
2.10-2.40pm: Carrie de Silva, (Harper Adams University), Dominic Carrington (University of Northampton), Avis Whyte and Judith Bourne, with the archivists of the 4 Inns of Court will launch the project on Recovering Lost Lives from the Archives. Legal history has a part to play in improving racial equality at the Bar, through challenging damaging myths and racial stereotypes and providing a record of pioneer black and ethnic minority lawyers.
2.35-3pm: Questions