News - News - Anesta Weekes QC Chairs SRA Working Party on BMEs

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has said it recognises that black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors are over-represented in its regulatory investigations, and is concerned to address this. It says concerns have also been raised about the disproportionateness by others, including some BME practitioners who say they feel they are being treated differently from white colleagues.

In fact, last year and earlier this year, Keith Vaz, Member of Parliament for Leicester East and chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons, expressed his deep concerns about the SRA and the "disproportionate number of investigations" it conducts into ethnic minority firms as well as its failure to act sufficiently quickly on claims that it investigates a disproportionate number of black and ethnic minority firms. He had called on Bridget Prentice, the Justice Minister, to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the SRA’s work.

The SRA Board has now set up a working party, led by an Independent Chair, Anesta Weekes, QC, and including a representative of each of the main BME solicitor practitioner groups. The role of the working party will be to identify issues, questions and concerns expressed by BME practitioners that need to be addressed by an independent review commissioned by the SRA.  The Independent Reviewer will be Lord Herman Ouseley.

Members of the working party want to be inclusive and invite appropriate organisations to consider whether they would like to be represented or would like to submit any questions or concerns for consideration in the review. In order for an organisation to be considered, it would need in its application to demonstrate that it has been established for a minimum of one year and has a constitution and it has a legitimate representative constituency that includes BME solicitors practising in England and Wales.