Research
This section contains information on the main equality research projects the Society has undertaken.
Currently information is available on three projects:
Consultation on new complaints process
The Profile of the Profession
Our Service Accessibility Review
The Women in the Legal Profession study
It should be noted that many smaller projects, and reviews of internal dealt, have taken place to examine specific issues. Details of these can be found in our Equality and Diversity Strategy (which includes our Race Equality Scheme), and in our Disability and Gender Equality schemes – all of these can be downloaded by clicking here.
Consultation on new complaints process
The Law Society of Scotland invited Capability Scotland’s Equality Unit to host a disability equality involvement event on Monday 2nd June 2008.
The aim was to obtain the views of disabled people on the new complaints system that will be adopted following the creation of the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission in October 2008.
Five disabled people with a range of impairments and conditions attended the event.
The Profile of the Profession
One of the major initiatives of 2006 was the ‘Profiling the Profession’ project. This project was managed by an independent organisation (The Grange Group) and involved the distribution of a questionnaire to all our members, accompanied by a marketing campaign emphasising the importance of the project. Of around 10,000 members 3,017 responded, with a good demographic match to some of the data we can already definitively identify from our database of members (such as gender and age profiles). This means we believe we have a dataset we can be confident in.
As this was the Society’s first time collecting much of this sensitive data the decision was made to make the questionnaire anonymous and use a third-party data processor so that individuals were not having to return the data to the Society itself.
The questionnaire was developed with the support of our Diversity Advisory Group, and a pilot was tested on 20 practising solicitors prior to release of the final questionnaire.
The full report can be downloaded from the menu to the right of this page.
Our Service Accessibility Review
On the 20th September the Society held a Service Accessibility Review, which saw directors and staff from different departments engage with members of the public with a range of disabilities, in order to assess how the Society can better meet their needs.
The Society’s Head of Diversity, Neil Stevenson, said:
“This is an important step in our preparation for the new Disability Equality Duties, which will come into force in December 2006. The Society is committed to ensuring that our services are accessible to all members of the public, and of the profession.”
The project was managed for the Society by the Inclusion Development Partnership, any organisation considering work in this field is welcome to contact the Society to discuss our positive experience of working with this dedicated team.
The event was covered in the Society’s Journal, click here to read the article.
The full report can be downloaded from the menu to the right of this page.
The Women in the Legal Profession study
The Law Society of Scotland and the Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland jointly commissioned this study into the position of women in the legal profession in Scotland, because of the perception that women appeared to be obtaining proportionately fewer senior positions in practice or the public sector. There was very little recent empirical research into the accuracy of such perceptions.
At the initial stages of the project a survey was undertaken of research which had been carried out in Scotland as well as in other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada and the USA. This identified a range of universal key themes. Alongside this survey, a study was undertaken of the membership database of the Law Society of Scotland.
The key themes related to progression within the profession, the possibility of a gender pay gap, work-life balance issues and whether there existed a masculine ethos within the profession.
It was felt by the research team that the most effective research strategy would comprise a questionnaire covering the entire Law Society of Scotland membership. A project of this scale was unprecedented in Scotland insofar as the legal profession is concerned.
This questionnaire was drafted on the basis of the key themes which had been identified from previous research carried out within Scotland and other jurisdictions. Given the size of the population, this data was to be analysed quantitatively. In addition, respondents were to be given the opportunity to add comments which would provide additional, qualitative data.
An initial draft of the questionnaire was piloted within a cross sample of the solicitors’ profession in Scotland. As a consequence, minor alterations were made to the instrument of research.
The Society’s thanks go to Moira MacMillan, Dr Nick McKerrell, Angus McFadyen and their supporting teams for their work on this project and for the summary provided below.
The work was covered in the Society’s Journal, click here to read the article.
The full report and an executive summary can be downloaded from the menu to the right of this page.
